Fantasy Baseball Today - Evaluating Cristian Javier, Week 25 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

Chris Towers and Scott White recap Thursday's action and then preview Week 25, looking at two-start pitchers, sleeper hitters and more! 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

Alcantra, Syroka, you look so good in poker, Breronta, Manalido, Castillo. Happy Kokomo Friday. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. I am Chris Howers here with Scott White on Friday, September 5th. I got that right. We are recapping Thursday's action. We're going to talk a little week 25 preview.

And we're going to see if I can successfully overcome my technical deficiency. and do a Scotty doesn't because Frank's got like little buttons he can press and he's got like a yellow button and a red button I don't have any buttons you know I have buttons but I think I've got a way to make it work you didn't actually say what we're doing it's Scotty doesn't know Scottie doesn't know so we didn't do it last week I know there was an uproar people were rioting in the streets so I'm gonna I'm gonna try to do it this week and see if I can make that happen I make no promises about my abilities to do anything. You could just sing it. I could, but it's less, I think I have a fun way. It'll be, I think I have a fun one for the people watching on YouTube as well.

So thanks for joining us on YouTube if you're here live. Thanks for watching the stream if you're not. And Scott, let's get to Thursday's recap. You want to kick us off with an oh my goodness gracious player? Oh my goodness gracious for Thursday. I'm going to go with Ryan Pepio. who no hit the Cleveland Guardians.

Yes, he did. Over five innings. But it was a good start. He pitches for the race, so. Yeah. Yeah. What is your point there? The five innings thing.

Oh, they just let their pitch. Okay. I see what you. Ha, ha. Okay. I love one of joke lands. So it was a good start, obviously. Five no hit innings.

He had 15 whiffs on 90 pitches. Here's the thing, though. This was no hits in five innings. The previous start was one hit. And the previous start before that was one hit. So now across three starts, Ryan Pepio has allowed a combined two hits. And what the two most recent of those starts have in common beyond just not allowing many hits is him really leaning into the two pitches that we know to be good for Ryan Pepio. The fastball, he threw it 60% of the time in this one.

and the change up. He threw 20% of the time at this. So he threw them a combined 80% of the time. And in Ryan Pepio's previous start, let's see if I can pull that up real quick. Nope, because I misspelled his name. He threw them both a lot, too, is the point. It's spelled just like it sounds.

Yeah, I know. It's just hard to think of the spelling of someone's name while you're also trying to think of where it's to say. say um i pulled it up now so if you want to know in his previous start he threw his fastball and his change up a combined 75 85% of the time so 85% last time 80% this time normally it's less than that because he's mixing in other stuff that isn't his good so ryan papio really leaning into his last two start uh into the best two pitches his last two starts allowing basically no hits and we've seen that fly ball rate which was very high last year we've

seen it tick up over the course of this season. It started low and, okay, maybe Swamp-Burnerfield won't be such a problem for him. But it's gotten back to normal. This is the other side of that. Yes, high fly ball rate means more home run risk, but it can also mean more hit prevention, particularly if your pitches are really effective, which they've been for Pepio lately. I know Pepio is universally rostered, and so I don't know that there's anything actionable here. But two hits over his last three starts combined is is interesting enough to to kick off

the show, I think. It's impressive for sure. And I, looking ahead to 2026, and I think we're at the point now where I think we got to mix them both, right? You know, you're just starting Ryan Pepe. You're looking ahead to next year, he's basically settled in the last two start, the last two seasons as a 360 ERA pitcher. I think it was 359 last year. and 360 or 360 this last year, 359 so far this year. This does feel like one where you should probably just take that at face value. Like that's probably what he is and that's good. You know, strikeout per inning, good whip.

But 3ZRA good whip, yeah. If they do move back into Tropicana next year, which I actually, I was thinking about that today, I haven't really heard anything. I think one way or the other. They're selling that we know they're selling the team. I don't know how long that process takes. And so I'm sure current ownership isn't going to do anything about Tropicana.

So, yeah, I would expect, I would expect, I don't know, obviously, but I would expect they're playing in the same place next year. I would guess that as well. But if they do move back to Trapecanna next year, there could be a little bit of like very mild breakout appeal for Ryan Pepe. He's going to be 29 years old. I don't think it's a situation where, you know, like coming into this season, and there was some hope that Ryan Pepeo would take a big step forward and he's just kind of held steady.

I don't think you should expect a step forward next year, but with how fastball dependent he is and with the way we know fastballs play better at Tropicana than they do in other places, I do still think there is a little bit of breakout appeal for Ryan Pepeo in 2026 if they are back in Tropicana field, which might be a pretty big if, but I do think that's worth pointing out. I will transition over to my oh my goodness gracious player from Tuesday. And I think there are a couple of options I could have gone with. I'm going to go with Luke Keishel, who we talked a lot about when he first came back from the IL and then the conversations have kind of petered out.

He's still, for the most part, hitting very well. He went four for five with two runs, an RBI, and a steel. I think it was four singles on Thursday. And that pushes him up to a 322 line. for the season with a 414 on base, a 504 slug. Four homers and nine steals. He stole another base on Thursday. Four home runs and nine steals and 34 games.

That's like a 20 homer 40 steel pace. And the underlying numbers aren't quite as good as the actual production because they're not going to be. They're not going to be. Lookyche's probably not a 900 OPS bat. Well, is he an 800 OPS bat? I feel pretty good about that. It's funny you say that because I actually came out just here on Thursday with my bold prediction for 20, bulk predictions for 2026 article.

And we did record a podcast for that that played on Labor Day. But I came up with some new ones for the article. And one of them was Luke Keishel leads second baseman in OPS next year, which the big hurdle there is obviously going to be Catell Marte, who you can basically pencil in. for a 900 OPS. And it's obviously stretching what's realistic for Luke Kishel. Like bold predictions, that's kind of the whole point. But guy had a 420 on base percentage in the minors last year. It's over 400 now in his first taste of the majors.

And that's the O&OPS. Like you can go a long way with a high on base percentage. And I think Kishel, I think we can pencil them in for that at least. As far as the... For me, it's the power. Yes, as far as the power, he doesn't hit the ball that hard. This is known. But what I am encouraged by here in Luke Keishel's rookie season is he's been as effective as he is.

Four home runs now, right? Four home runs in 136 plate appearances. So a little behind the pace we hope for, but he's been very effective overall. And the power has been existent, at least. he's done that in spite of having a pull air rate of 16.2%, a very average pull air rate. It was over 20% in the minors last year. And that's one of those things that I feel like can be slower to come around for a hitter when they reach the majors is just hitting the ball at the most optimal angles. Kishel's power depends on that, but we've seen them do it before.

and so I think that's going to get better as this goes along. Now is he a 30-35 homer guy like it, El Marte? No, but if he's a 400 OBP guy or close to it and he's getting to 20, 22 home runs, something like that, then he's going to be really, especially since he's such a prolific base dealer. I mean, one of my bold predictions on the podcast was Ozzie Albee's, uh, Rebounds is a top three second baseman next year. I got to think about the strides Bryce Terang has made with power this year. I got to think it about how much I like Luke Keishel for next year. And of course, Catell is still there.

You're pushing down to live? I don't know how Albi's is going to get in the top three. Because, of course, then there's still Jose Altuve and a host of other players that could be. So I check it down and made it top. Top five. Jazz should be second base eligible next year, right? Jazz will be second base eligible. I chickened out and said top five.

Ozzy Albiz rebounds is top five. Yeah. Who would you rather have for 2026? Luke Keishel or Jordan Westberg? Keeshiel. Who would you rather have? Westbrook's good, but more limited. Luke Keeshal or Michael Garcia?

I think Keeshal. I think. It's a close call, but I mean, I think. If you're taking them over those guys, then I think you've got to rank them as a top five guy next year. Yeah. I don't. Okay. So we know Cattell Martes did rank that high.

Jazz Chissel. Jose Al-Tube. Jose Al-Tube will have. Yes. All four of those will have to rank higher. Then you get to like Jordan Westberg, Michael Garcia, Xavier Edwards, Nico Horner. Mm-hmm. I mean, all these is in the discussion, I think, particularly if he, if his September continues the way his

second half is gone, but I'm hoping I can rank all these lower because I want to be able to get him at a discount next year. Yeah, it's interesting. I think Lucchial is in that top five discussion for next season. So that's a, that's a heck of a thing for a guy who didn't really have, like, there was some hype around him, but there wasn't a ton coming into the season. He was a personal favorite of mine. I think I got a. I think I got him in my top 35 preseason prospects, but, but yeah, he kind of flew under the radar over. And then do want to note before we take our first break that the rays are planning on playing at Tropicana Field in 2026. They released their schedule last week along with the rest of the league, and it does have them returning to Tropicana Field.

They had, they began working on the Tropicana Field and July. And so, yeah, it looks like they're going to be back. So that's good news for Ryan Pepeu. It does introduce just a little bit of uncertainty for their hitters. And I think that's most notable for Junior Commonero just because he's by far the most notable hitter on their team. I tend to think it doesn't matter for him. It's just a variable where there are some guys who really struggled at Tropicana Field. Yeah, okay, that's fair.

There have been some concerns about the batting eye raised there specifically, and that's a variable that's very difficult to account for because I don't think everybody's equally affected by it. But I have seen – Really, this was terrible there. I have seen floating around on baseball Twitter the last couple days after Commonero got to 40 home runs. It's fake because look at his home away splits. Well, for home runs, it's pretty much dead even. He has a much lower batting average on the road.

But because that park isn't necessarily geared for batting average is more geared for home runs. I think that's just kind of one of those things that happened. I don't think it's anything to take seriously the home away splits for Commonero. But yeah, we don't know how that batterer Zayatropican is going to affect him specifically. It shouldn't change your outlook for him, but it should be like, I'm off the top of my head. I don't know who it would be. Like, I think he's going to rank well ahead of A. Eugenio Suarez, even though they're having very similar seasons.

I mean, Frank's, Frank's already decided Commonero clearly the number two, third basement for next year. And in points leagues, I think Manny Machado could still threaten that. But in categories, I think that's right. So like you got a automatically slot Common Arrow too. Is jazz? Jazz will be third base eligible.

I think that's going to be a really tough. call. And if you want to say, that's fair, but if you want to say contract year, guys tend to play more injury, those nagging injuries, they tend to play through them. Yeah. If you want to say. I tend not to hope to that. Like, I don't, I don't want to pin many hopes on my second round pick. You know what I'm saying?

Like I, I, yes, maybe that could happen. Maybe jazz chisholm stays healthy because he's motivated by a contract. Okay, let's say it's not that. Let's say it's Nick Kurtz versus Junior Kamenegro with your second round pick next year. Yeah, Frank brought that up and I said. You might be able to say, well, I just don't know how the trope is going to affect Junior Kamenaro. And that could be a tiebreaker. It shouldn't, it shouldn't be a 10% change in how you view Junior Kamenaro, but it introduces just a little bit of uncertainty where maybe it's not quite worth drafting right at Junior Kamenaro.

Menaro ceiling. I think that's probably the way to look at it, but we'll have a whole off season to discuss that kind of stuff. We have a whole day of stuff to talk about still. So we're going to take a quick break on FBT. We'll be right back. And we're back on fantasy baseball today. I'm Chris Towers here with Scott White. Let's talk some news and notes. And the big one, the youth movement continues apace in Queens. the Mets are promoting Brandon Sprote from AAA to make his MLB debut Saturday in Cincinnati. And if you've been following prospects, especially if you were following prospects last year and then for some reason decided to stop this season, you might be surprised that Nolan McLean and Jonah Tongue beat Brandon Sprote to the majors. Because this time last year, we were talking about maybe Brandon Sprote getting a late season call up.

And the problem is his first like five months at AAA were just an. absolute disaster. He was terrible there last season. He was terrible there in his first 15 starts this season, putting up a 595 ERA and a 4% K-minus walk rate in his first 15 starts. If you're not familiar with K-minus walk rate, that's bad. You want higher than 4%. But since July 1st, Brandon Sprode has a 30% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. do the math in your head. That's 21.5% K minus walk rate. That's very good.

And he has a 272 ERA in that stretch, which helped rebuild his prospect value and, I think, helped convince the Mets to call him back up. Now, how, I think your expectations for Brandon Sproke should clearly be lower than they were for Nolan McLean and Jonah Tom when they got called him. He just seems to be in a different class as a prospect than those two guys now. We've seen the downside. He throws hard, but it's kind of a dead zone fastball.

It doesn't have any really remarkable characteristics outside of the velocity. He's got a very deep arsenal sweeper, change up, curveball, slider in addition to the fastball and syncret. It's a legit six pitch mix. I haven't seen a good explanation for why he was so bad and why he's been so much better since. Well, it depends how basic you want the explanation to be. The control has been a lot better during this turnaround. And Brandon Sprote has been, he's always been a ground ball pitcher, but he's taken it to another extreme this year.

It looks like he's mixed in more sinkers, not so relying on the four seamers. So his ground ball rate at AAA is 53%. It's very high. And minor league defenses famously are not as good as major league defenses. So I wonder how much of that was just because the contact quality is 87, than average exit velocity against Brandesboro. Very low, and it's basically exactly the same as last year.

So he's giving up just as much weak contact, just more of it on the ground. And so how much was he getting burned by that, in addition to having too many walks? Like, that's probably the single biggest issue, and that has clearly improved. I think he's still really good. So you gave the number since July 1st.

you go back 11 starts at a 244 ERA for Brandon Sprote and 10.7K per 9 in addition to being a really high ground ball guy, which is normally a good thing. So I'm pretty excited about this. I don't know exactly how the Mets are going to configure their rotation beyond this turn for Sprote because he becomes the seventh man in the rotation, right? but with three at least three candidates who could be removed there's a case to remove them um yeah i'm seven those being those being codicenga clay holmes and uh shan minai you can make the case to remove any or all of them and so it might depend on how brandon sprope does in this debut obviously you can't expect him to live up to what nolan mclean is done because who does and jonah tong is was the best best pitcher in the minors this year. So you shouldn't expect that either. But I do think

Brandon Sprode is good. And I think he could be impactful down the stretch, depending how this first start goes. And it is not an ideal landing spot in Cincinnati. That's not a great lineup, but it is a tough home park. But he does keep the ball on the ground. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if we've got a good start out of Brandon Sproote. So that's certainly one to keep an eye out. And for fantasy for waivers, I think if you're running your waivers before, Sunday, I think it's worth throwing a couple of buck bid in there and seeing what he looks like. Because if he looks great, then there's going to be a lot of big bids on Sunday, especially because that's going to happen right before the waiver wire runs. So people are going to be very excited if he looks good and very good chance he does.

Moving on, Pablo Lopez will make his return from the IL Friday. He's been out since early June with that shoulder injury, but has 14 strikeouts and 11 and a third innings on his rehab assignment and got up to 82 pitches in his most recent start. I'm just starting to throw them in my lineup, right? I'm sorry, I missed the name. Pablo Lopez. Pablo Lopez. You know, after this long of a layoff, a shoulder injury,

I prefer to play it safe. It's not the biggest gamble in the world if you want to stick him in your lineup right away, especially since he looked good on his rehab assignments, since the stuff pretty much seemed intact. it's fine if you want to do that but ideally you'd play it safe all right

jazz chisholm was removed from Thursday's game with contusions on both of his knees Francisco Alvarez this is shocking he's coming off the IL tomorrow on Friday he fractured his pinky last Wednesday and is playing through a

UCL injury in his thumb from late August but I don't know I guess they feel like he's good enough to play it's really frustrating because it looked like he was really figuring it out after getting called back up from AAA. He was awesome at AAA. The like, I don't know, 20 or so games that he played before the injury, he looked great.

I think the best we've ever seen from Francisco Alvarez. And so I hope this doesn't derail him, but my expectations are, frankly, pretty low. Just because he's playing through injury, right? Yeah, just because he's playing through injuries to two different fingers now. Seth Lugo was placed on the aisle with a lower back strain. Maybe that explains why he's been so bad lately. 751 ERA. 175 whip since the All-Star break.

Go ahead and drop him. I don't think you're going to regret that even if he comes back, given the way he's pitching. Stephen Culloch was recalled to take his place on the roster. O'Neill Cruz has set out the past five games against lefties. So the pirates seem to be leaning fully into him being a part-time player, or at least a platoon player. And look, he's hitting like 1.13 against lefties this season. So it's hard to argue too much with it.

I think it's kind of silly to do that this late in the season. Why not just keep throwing him out there and see if he can figure it out? But whatever, I guess. I guess O'Neill Cruz is just a platoon bat now. Mike Trout returned after missing two games from a skin infection. That is silly for the pirates especially. Yeah, because again, nothing to play for. You got it.

You got it. You had nothing to play for in April and you were playing against lefties. What's changed? And who else are you going to pin your hopes to but O'Neill Cruz? Connor Griffin next year. Maybe. And obviously some pitchers, but I mean, hitter-wise. Yeah.

The Dodgers DFAed Alexis Diaz and option Alex Freeland to AAA to add Ben Roartfit to the active roster. That is because Will Smith will be out of the lineup through the end of this weekend, it sounds like, after having a hand concussion. In Wednesday's game, he is expected to avoid the IL, so let's hope. Conclusion. Hand contusion. Did I say hand concussion? You did say hand concussion? My initial thought was, that's something you could do to your hand?

I assumed you had it right, but then I was like, no, no, he said the wrong word. You should never assume I had it right. That's actually, that's on you for assuming I had it right. Max Muncie started his minor league rehab assignment Thursday at AAA. It was delayed a few games with an illness, but I think he's going to be back probably early next week. Are you just starting him next week if he's back on Monday? Oh, gosh, Chris, I can't process as fast as you talk. I'm used to Frank repeating the guy's name before I have to answer.

Max Muncie of the Dodgers. Yes. Yeah, ever since getting the glasses, he's been amazing in third base is week. And I'm sure if you've stashed him, it's because he's. you have a needed third base. So go ahead and start Monzi. All right, Shohei Otani will make his next start Monday against the Rockies.

He was scratched from his start Wednesday with an illness. It's not clear if the Dodgers will return to a six-man rotation with Emmett Sheehan remaining in or not. I would guess yes on that one. Carter Jensen was the DH in his first MLB start. That's the catcher for the Royals. So that's mildly interesting and also not a great sign for Jack Hegelone the rest of the way. they're going to split time. And they were saying that.

I don't have the quotes in front of me, but they basically said, basically they want to have Jack Caglione around because he can only help, but they're not, they're not just going to turn over a job to him, like they did the first time around. That was the gist of what they said.

Again, I don't think it really makes sense. They don't have a ton to play for the rest of the season, They're competing still. They're in the race, right? Unless they've really crashed to recently. Their playoff odds have been in the single digit. They have a 10% chance of making the playoffs, according to Fangraph. So I guess they're still in it.

But yeah, they're as in it as the Rangers are. Yeah, I guess. I guess. I don't think they will, but they have to try. No, that's a fair point. They have something to play for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Highson Kim got his first start since coming back from the I.L. on Thursday. Jackson Churio returned to the lineup as the DH after missing Wednesday's game with hamstring stiffness. Christian Yelich missed his second game in a row with back soreness, but he is expected back on Friday. Jerks and ProFar returned from the paternity leave list

and should be back in the lineup on Friday. Jordan Hicks placed on the IL with a shoulder injury. Esoc Paredes hit on the field Tuesday and Wednesday and has been able to run at about 50% capacity. He's going to head to the team's spring training complex to continue his rehab.

I still think it's a very long shot he plays in the regular season, but sounds like he'll be back for the playoffs at least. It's a big boost for the Astros. Also, this one, follow-up imaging on Josh Hader's shoulder, showed healing, but he remained shut down from throwing. I think the hope is he can be back in the playoffs, but not a guarantee. And then Spencer O'getti was placed on the IL yesterday with elbow strain. Joe Spott acknowledged Thursday that is unlikely to lead to.

a return for Spencer Rageddy this season. I mean, not surprising. Pitchers spend 15 days on the IAL. There's not many more left than that in the season. There's 20, 25, I think, 24, something like that. Sounds close enough. 23, let's say 23. And then Ryan Jeffers was removed from Thursday's game after taking a couple of hits off

his mask during the game. He presumably will be checked for a concussion, so I'm going to keep an eye on for those of you setting your lineups this weekend. And we are going to be right back with some Scotty Doesn't Know, a little week 25 preview and finish up talking about Thursdays games. And we are back on fantasy baseball today. And let's do a little Scotty doesn't know. And for those of you just joining us, I don't really know how this segment works. I'm just trying to stump Scott, I think, is basically the point, right?

We got some, we got some interesting trivia. It's better for everyone if I miss it. it because the clip is funny. But I will earnestly try not to be. Doesn't seem like you think it's funny. No, it's funny. All right. Seems like you're doing the like,

oh, it's very funny to me. I'm laughing about it. It's actually, it's funny that you think I'm mad is what's funny. People have been singing this song to me for 20 years or whenever Euro Trip came out. About 22? Yeah.

I only saw Euro trip like three or four years ago. So I didn't even have context for the song people were singing to me. And it's, uh, yeah, I mean, the context is, uh, you know, Matt Damon performance. Great, great Matt Damon performance. Sure. Sure. All right. Uh, we've got five little bits of trivia.

I focused on things I thought were interesting from the second half leaderboards. You can tell me if they're actually interesting. But we'll start with there are three short stops with 10 home runs since. the All-Star break. Can you name them? Three short stops, like fantasy eligible short stops or true they play shortstop in the majors? They are both fantasy eligible and primarily play shortstop. So not Colson Montgomery. He is primarily playing shortstop, isn't he? I thought he was primarily playing there. Okay, so Colson Montgomery. Colson Montgomery is leading short stops. Yeah, he's primarily played shortstop. He has, okay.

320 innings to 95 at third base. So I didn't know that. And he leads all short stops with, I believe it's 17 home runs since the All-Star break. Is that right? Did he get called up before the All-Star break? He did. Okay. So he's got a whole bunch.

He hit his 17th home run since the All-Star break on Thursday night. Another I'm going to guess is Willie Adamas. That was the one I was surprised. surprised by but yes yes 14 oh yeah okay yeah i got a right okay can i sweep it because this is a three-parter here did the double digit short stops with double-digit home runs since the all-star break you're saying uh could it's it's a guy we talked a lot about in like late april early may and haven't talked about as much even though he's been awesome all year Trevor story not Trevor Story.

Trevor Story has eight. Does that mean you play the clip or do you're giving me more guesses? Oh, okay. I can play the clip. Are you ready? All right. I hope it's going to be a treat for the YouTube audience as well. Are you ready?

Sure. So I'm the one singing the song about Scotty doesn't know. I know that that doesn't. I put Scott's head on Matt Damon's body. In the clip. I know it doesn't really work. Scotty is not Matt Damon. Matt Damon is the lead singer of the band, I guess.

I don't know what his character's name is. But I just thought it would be a nice little treat to put your face on him. For the eyes and ears. So I pulled up my shortstop rankings just to give myself like a word bank here. I'm not seeing who else it could be. He hasn't been like huge lately. He's just been steady, steady, netty. Zach Netto, 10 home runs, seven steals since the All-Star break,

14 for Willie Adomas and 17 for Colson Montgomery. I don't think there's room for two of those three in the top 12 for shortstop next year. Zach Netto's got to be a top 12 short short time. Zach Netto, yes, for sure. Willie Adama's and Colson Montgomery, probably not. I can say that pretty confidently. Now, if Colson Montgomery does gain third base eligibility for next season, let me see how far away he is from that. He needs eight more appearances at third base.

Do you think you could sneak him into your top 12 at third base? A third base? I don't think I will. Some people might. I could see him getting drafted in the top 12. But you and I both agree he's overperformed this year because it's pretty much been all home runs and an unreal. realistic pace. And sure, maybe he'll get better next year in other ways.

He's got the predigree. But I think I can come up with 12 third baseman that I'd rather bid on more, including Max Muncie, including Isok Paredes, guys who've been out for a while because of injuries. All right. Let's move on to our second question. Who leads the majors in stolen bases at any position since the All-Star Break? and this one is hilarious. hilarious.

Is it Josh Naylor? It is not Josh Naylor. All right, you got to play the clip. That's how this works. Okay, all right, all right. Hold on. All right. Would you like to know who leads the majors in stolen bases since the all stature?

I thought I gave the most hilarious answer, but who is it? No, Josh Naylor is tied for fifth with 12 next to Trey Turner and Corbyn Carroll. That makes total sense. number four and number three are Francisco Lindor and Chandler Simpson and then tied for the lead Jazz Chisholm with 16 that makes sense he steals a lot of bases Juan Soto has 16 steals

in 42 games in the second half yeah that is hilarious I have no idea what to make of this that's the thing and that's always the thing with middle of the orders hitters who steal bases, even if they have a track record of it, but certainly if they don't. I mean, that's something. And if they aren't fast.

Yes. Yon Soto is 15th percentile sprint speed. He's really slow. Getting slower by the day. He's slow and getting slower. And yet he's been caught twice. So he's kind of mastered the art of base stealing for being slow. So he could keep doing this.

But will he want to? Yeah. Because he's, he's so valuable without that, like, just getting on base. Forget even power for Juan Soto. But, you know, it invites more injuries, stealing bases. It probably doesn't feel good to flop on the ground at the end. Yeah. Especially since I don't know whether he slides head first or feet first.

I would never slide head first. I would never slide head first personally. Yeah. It's just for me. That's why I would be a base. have seen hitter players talk about just not wanting to run anymore because they felt like what it brought to the team detracted too much from them personally with maryfield comes to mind one year where his stolen base has decreased a lot but that it's especially true for middle

of the order hitters because what they provide as base dealers just seems like too much risk for what you'd be giving up if it goes wrong, you know? So if we could pencil in Juan Soto as a 25 steel guy, 30 steel guy, wherever he ends up next year. Oh, easily first. He's probably top five, even in Roto. And of course, he is in points to leagues regardless. He always has been.

But for Roto specifically, batting average has become questionable for him. But if he makes up for it with these steals, then great. And then maybe he'll have three. I imagine at least some year with the Metsill hit 300. But I don't know how to approach that. So I guess I will. Under 14 and a half next year. What are you taking?

Where do I take them? No, 14 and a half steals for Wonsetto. Are you taking the over or the over? Oh, am I taking the over? I guess I'd lean over. I'd lean with the over. Okay. That would be the second highest total of his career.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. He may still two next year. I think when it comes to ranking him and drafting him, because there is that hope for a lot more batting average, you can kind of balance out the stolen base risk with that,

at least psychologically mentally. You could do that. Whereas, yeah, if he doesn't do it, that's not to say that if he doesn't steal bases, he's going to hit for a higher batting average, but it's just... But one soda has a lot of ways. to succeed.

And there's not a lot of ways for it to go really wrong. Like even if it goes really wrong for Juan Soto, like 2022, he still had 93 runs, 27 homers. Like he was still a must start player, even though it was very disappointing season. If he doesn't live up to being a first round pick, it's because he performed like a second rounder instead. Probably. All right.

Moving on. Three pitchers have at least 60 strikeouts since the All-Star break. Can you name them? Three pitchers. Pitcher 60 all-star, 60 strikeouts since the All-Star break. Okay. Three pitchers, 60 strikeouts since the All-Star break. Who's been getting a ton of strikeouts?

Terek Scoobel seems like the free space. You got the free space. I'm going to say Gare-Crochet also. Not Gary Crochet. That is a little bit surprising. He has 58 strikeouts in 49 innings. It's not a bad guess, certainly. But he is fifth in strikeouts.

Would you like to? know the other two. Is Blake Snell one? No, he hasn't. Blake Snell is not one. No, he's not top 30. Yeah, tell me the other two. So number four, Christopher Sanchez at 59, just misses it.

His teammate, Jesus Lazzardo, second in strikeouts with 60. I never would have guessed him. I think the next one is just as surprising. At least Jesus Lazzardo is an elite strikeout pitcher. Brian Wu is... Tied for second in the majors since the All-Star break with 60 strikeouts in 55 innings. It's mostly a volume thing. He's averaging over six innings per start.

Not a lot of guys doing that these days. Honest, he might be the only guy averaging six innings per start since the All-Star break, now that I look at it. Sandy Al-Contra is, Trevor Rogers is. Okay, there's like five guys averaging six innings per start. But Brian Wu, strike rate ticking up a little bit since the All-Star break. He's very good. Is he a top 12 starting pitcher for 2026? It'll be close if he isn't.

I have a hard time answering these questions without having like a mental roll-a-dicts of the names to narrow it down, you know? But I currently have him ranked 13th the rest of season. It wouldn't take much to get him in the top 12 now. But you're going to have some pitchers coming back from injury. I'll I think he just misses I think he just misses top 12 for me top 15 though

yeah probably top top no the number two Mariners pitcher right I would take Logan Gilbert over Wu next year but I pretty sure I would take Wu over Kirby all right next question

only one pitcher has more than 25 walks in the second half hint he is a very fantasy relevant pitcher who has a 343 ERA in the second half despite the walks and less than a K per inning. Hmm, who's been walking all those guys? Less than a K per inning, a lot of walks. Is it, is it, I got a couple guesses here. Is it Ranger Suarez?

This was actually one who pitched on Thursday. He only walked two, I believe, on Thursday, but only three. strikeouts in six innings, and that's Carlos Rodan, who has gotten decent results in the second half. It's been rocky, but the ERA is not terrible. But man, he's really falling apart. He has, after Thursday's game, 28 walks in 50 and two-thirds innings, only 45 strikeouts. That is not good for Carlos Rodan, who was excellent in the first half of the season, but has really, really struggled, I think, in the second half. I don't know what to do with him for 2025,

2026. I was pretty optimistic about him coming into this season, and that's worked out really well. But his peripherals have, I guess they're fine. 384 FIPP is okay. But not quite at the level of the 312 ERA. Obviously, the control has regressed badly in the second half. I'm, I don't know. He'll be top 30. He'll be top 30. If he finishes with an ERA around three, he's probably going to be a top 30, maybe top 24 pitcher. And I'm probably not going

to be drafting Carlos Rodon very much if that's the case. You know, he was like 45 coming into the season and it was fine to take the flyer there. But given the injury history, given the inconsistent production, I just, I think like, I'd, I think I'd rather have Hazes Lazzardo than Carlos Rodon, at least at what I expect their prices to be. I will probably view them very similarly for 2025, 2026. And I assume Luzardo is going to be a lot cheaper. I don't think so. I think they'll both be around 30th in the rankings. I expect Rodon will be higher, but like you get you get much beyond 30. And I know there are some injured players like Spencer Schwellenbach, probably some others. Cole, Cole Regens will move up.

beyond that but you know you get past look in rest of season rankings now you get past 30 you're into like uh well i've got i've got the guys who recently returned from injury kyle bradish shame beaver there uh Andrew Abbott's there uh Merrill kelly ones who've continued to flounder like jack flaredy and sunny gray yeah we're taking rodon over all those guys and luzardo over all those guys and luzardo over all those those guys um beber was not in that group right i did mention beber i'd take beber over them yeah i mean we'll i think i'll i think i would take how braddish goes yeah i think i would take how bradish over them they're both they're you yeah that that's unique but then you get like

but and rabbit let's say andrew i i'd probably take lord and rodon and louzardo and i think most everyone would what about jacob miserowski and chase burns i think he's You're taking them. Maybe. Burns, I probably do move ahead. But not Miszerowski. Misarowski's really shown his warts here recently. What about Trevor Rogers?

I would take him behind Rodon and Luzardo. Okay. It's just the strikeouts? Well, a general distrust. I mean, whatever distrust you have for Rodon, I think Rogers is deserving of more, right? Okay. Let's go to the last one. You disagree?

No, I think that's perfectly reasonable. I've been very impressed by Trevor Rogers. I don't know how sustainable it is. It feels very Ranger Suarez-e to me, except he doesn't have the track record of Ranger Suarez. By the way, Ranger Suarez, terrible guess for the walks in the second half. He had three walks in all of August. I didn't want to point it out. So that was a bad one.

All right. last one. So this one is now currently out of date. I'll give you, there are two pitchers with 12 saves in the second half of the season. One is Carlos Estevez who got his 12th save since the All-Star break on Thursday. Who is the other one? 12 saves in the second half. I'm going to say it's got to be somebody obscure, right, or else why would you bring it up?

Yeah. I am, man, I'm going to say, oh, I'm going to say, oh, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to. I'm going to say Kenley Jansen. Scotty should know, but. Ricell Glacios. Ryssal Iglesias has 12 saves and a 257 ERA in the second half. He has really turned his season around. Strikeouts haven't quite been there, 20 and 21 innings.

He's a free agent at the end of the season. Going to be interesting to see. I assume he lands somewhere where he gets to continue to be the starter or closer, but not necessarily a guarantee, I guess. He might wind up right back in Atlanta. I don't think that would be a surprise at all. Definitely a chance for that. But yeah, he seems fine.

He seems perfectly fine now. And that rough start he got off to, which contributed to the state of the Brave season. Yes, absolutely. Because there were a lot of one-run games early in the year. But it's a distant memory now. He's been great. All right.

let's move on to the week 25 preview first up the schedule 20 teams have six games 10 have seven that's easy math right there the guardians rockies royals angels marlins metts phillies padres mariners and nationals all have seven games on the schedule in week 25 and unfortunately for the rockies those seven games are all away from course field so uh start hunter goodman and nobody else i guess um Yeah, which is not really that different from how you should approach the Rockies in most weeks, but there you go. Start or sit these two-star pitchers this week, Scott. Yuri Perez, he's got the Nationals and the Tigers. No way, right? It's funny because this is probably the ugliest two-star pitcher slate of the season. So, to quote Homer Simpson, it's the ugliest two-star pitcher slate of the season. season so far. So far. We are at that point because I think you said the same thing about last week

too. Well last week's was limited. Lacks for it was a small number of two-star pitchers but there's 35 this week even accounting for a lot of the six-man rotations going on right now. And a lot of TBAs right now. 35. Uri Perez ranks 12th among them and yet he is in the bottom tier. So the bottom tier begins at 12 of 35. Okay. Meaning no thanks. And that's what... When we talked about your Perez yesterday, I said, I don't see how you start

him with as bad as five of his last six starts have been. And I'm sticking with that. So I'm going to assume the same is true for Aaron Nola, who's got the Mets and Royals, Sean Minion. Yeah, I said otherwise for Nola, I said I probably would have him as a start in points leagues, but I've changed my mind. It's no thanks for me on it. Jose Barrios versus the Astros versus Baltimore.

Are you starting him? Just too many bad starts. And then Nick Lodolo, probably leaning start, right? Yeah. He falls a little short of must start since this is a second back from injury, and he'll be recovering from illness. Yeah. But I think because he lines up for two,

most everybody's going to use Nick Lodolo. All right, and then some two-star pitchers to add and stream, Luis Morales. We've liked what we've seen from him. Strikeout rate has increased in, I think, four straight starts. now. He's got the Red Sox and Cincinnati, both at home. Really tough place to pitch, but he's pitched well enough that I think you can go with it. Cade Cavali starts got to go with it.

Kaye Cavali exceptional matchups at Miami versus Pittsburgh. And then Nebiel Khrsmat, who had some like interesting minor league numbers. He's got great matchups at San Francisco at Minneapolis, Minnesota. I assume that's why you're wrong with it. I always get those confused. Nobody's ever called the Minneapolis before. No. They're Minnesota and all the major sports. Wouldn't it make more sense for the twins to be Minneapolis rather than Minnesota, though?

They're representing the twin cities. You didn't think about that, did you? I mean, I don't know all the politics behind why they're called Minnesota. Like, why is a team named after a state rather than a city? I know it became an issue when the Marlins wanted a stadium partly funded by the city of Miami, so they became the Miami Marlins instead of the Florida Marlins. I don't know the twins history with that. You know, that reminds me.

I always hate when a university is like Miami State University. That doesn't make any sense, right? That is not a state. Like Miami State University is not a real, but whatever. There are lots of them out there. I can't think of any right now. But, you know. Getting back to Nebiel Khrismat at San Francisco,

at Minnesota, he's 3% rostered in fantasy, and he's gotten a ton of ground. balls. Like I think he's very useful. It is a recommendation more for points leagues because I could see him hurting your whip and Roto and probably not going to give you a big strikeout number even with two starts. But I think if you got to dig really deep, Chris Mont is a good choice. All right. One start streamers.

Kyle Bradish gets the Pirates. Peyton Toley gets the A's at Sacramento. He's a big, he's a big ground ball guy, right? So that should work out for him. Polly. I know he's a big strikeout guy. That's one of those recommendations, and I've talked about it a lot lately, just how impressed I was by Peyton Pauley. I don't even care what the matchup is.

It's not the greatest matchup at the athletics, but who actually performed really well against left-handers. I was surprised to see. But I just, I would start Peyton Tully, particularly in this context where comparing him to other potential waiver claims. like he shouldn't be a potential waiver claim. So he's going to be near the top of the list. All right. Ian Seymour at the White Sox, Seby Matthews at the Angels.

Emmett Sheehan looks like he's going to get the Rockies on the road. That's great. Tyler Wells versus the Pirates, Parker Messick versus the White Sox. We got the best hitter matchups. You wanted that anything? Yeah. So first of all,

Tully is actually a fly ball pitcher. But again, he's a strikeout pitcher. That's the main appeal here. Zebby Matthews, we talked about how good he looked in his previous couple turns mixing in a sinker a little bit more and the Angels are so strikeout prone, most strikeout prone team. I think it'll go well for Matthews. Emmett Sheehan against the Rockies.

I mean, I love the matchup. It's just, is he going to make the start? I almost didn't put him on here because, of course, yes, it's a great matchup And he has looked great lately, getting a ton of wifts. Did he have 10 strikeouts at course field last week? Was that at course? It was 10 strikeouts and seven innings. I don't remember where it was or who it was against.

And they got 21 whiffs in his most recent start. But that was a spot start. Like he found out that day he was starting because Otani was ill, right? Yes. And so like she and the Dodgers don't really have a rotation right now. They have seven guys that they decide who's, starting. So it makes it really hard to project.

In theory, she ends turn lines up for the Rockies on the road. But the reason he's so low on this list, only seventh on this list, is because you can't be sure he's actually going to make that start. That's a good point. All right, the best hitter matchups, the Mariners have seven games,

Cardinals and Angels, guardians have seven games, Royals and White Sox. No Seth Lugo, although at this point, that might actually help the Royals pitching staff. the Royals, seven games at Cleveland at Philadelphia, the Marlins get the Nationals and Tigers,

and the Padres have seven versus the Reds and Rockies. Worst hitter matchups, Cardinals get the Giants and Brewers, Diamondbacks get the Giants and Twins. Athletics get the Red Sox and Reds, the Rangers get the Brewers and Mets, and the Red Sox get the A's and Yankees. Sleeper hitters, Dalton Varshow, Jorge Polanco, Royce Lewis, Luis Garcia,

Kyle Manzardo, who I've got a, I'll just mention it now. Kyle Manzardo has started the last three games against lefties. It seems like the Guardians are actually going to give him a chance. And he has held his own. 715 OPS against lefties. That's not great, but it's not like we need to bench this guy immediately. And it's a 353X-WOBA. It's a very small sample size, but the underlying numbers are actually very good for Kyle

Manzardo against lefties. So it's not much of an issue this week because they're scheduled to face five righties. and as you already mentioned, second best matchups for the Guardians this week. But that's something to keep an eye on for 2026. If he's playing every day against lefties and holds his own, I don't know if that happening in September is something that people are going to exactly take advantage of

or recognize. And so, Kyle Manzardo could have some serious sleeper potential for 20206 if he looks like a legit everyday player. So that's something I'm pretty excited about. Isaac Collins, Harrison Bader, Otto Lopez. Trevor Larnack and Matt Wanner.

I know you wanted to talk about the twins guys, right? Yeah, so the twins just missed the top five matchups. They place, all six of their games are scheduled to be against Ritey. So that works at the advantage of Larnick and Walner. Larnick has been especially hot lately. He had a three-hit game here Thursday. That was his fifth multi-hit game and six. He's batting 542 during that stretch.

But with only one extra base hit, a double. which is why Larnock doesn't rank higher on this list. But, you know, he's at a decent number of home runs this year. I think with the right matchups, he can be very useful. Walner, of course, a sink or swim kind of guy. And he had fallen into a slump again after performing well in August, but he just homered here on Thursday. So hopefully he's snapping out of it in time to take advantage of these matchups.

A couple other things I wanted to mention here. Dalton Varshot Varsho at the top, even though his matchups aren't anything special. 45% rostered for a guy with an OPS over 900 on the year, an OPS over a thousand against Ritees. That's five of what the Blue Jays are scheduled to face this week.

I feel like Varsho is close to must start, and he's available in more than half of leagues. So that's why he's so high on the list. Also, Harrison Bader has started to play every day for the Phillies. He's been great with them. 310 batting average, 855 OPS so far, gets decent power

because he elevates to his pole side well and isn't a zero for steals either. The Phillies matchups are pretty good, only 18% rostered. A notable one there. I also wanted to kind of preface this whole segment. I guess it's too late to preface it, but I'll wrap it up by saying that. I have changed the threshold for these final three weeks from 80% rostered to qualify for these lists to 75 because I'm finding, given how late we are in the year, given the roster rates are changing slower than they usually do. And some really obvious plays are getting stuck in that 75 to 80% rostership range. I'll go ahead and mention guys who would have made these lists very high in these lists.

They're less than 80, but they're over 75, so I left them out. And those guys are Jose Soriano, who faces the twins. And then on the hitting side, Joe Adele, Jacob Marcy, and Luke Keishel, who all have great matchups this week. Obvious starts. Too obvious, I feel like, to actually include among the sleeper hitters. All right. Let's finish up with some more Thursday talk.

Paul Skeens, six shutout innings, eight strikeouts. I saw a stat yesterday that the Pirates lead the majors and shutouts this season, and they almost had a shutout again today against the Dodgers. I think they scored in the ninth inning, or they would have continued to add to their league lead in shutouts, which is just incredible that they're so bad. Paul Skeens is the first pitcher since Bob Shadowball Lee to open his career with a sub 2.0 ERA in consecutive seasons.

If he owns holds on to this, that's minimum 130 innings. That is not a real nickname for Bob Lee. I just made that up. He pitched in 1964, 1965. If you go, if you want to just go with starters who have opened their career with sub two ERAs in consecutive seasons,

you have to go all the way back to 1908, 1909, when I don't know, some dude in the Taft administration was doing it. So like, I think Paul Skeens is the number three SP for 2026 because the wins and strikeouts upside is not the same as it is for Terrick Scoobo and Gert Crochet. I also can't really make a case against him as the SP one if you wanted to do it. And I think there's just a clear top three and then a big tier draw. I think the top three is absolutely clear. And then after that, it's kind of wide open.

Four might be, you could go with a number of candidates. Logan Gilbert, we mentioned earlier, I think in that discussion, which may raise an eyebrow. I think Chris Sale's still going to be in that discussion just because there's no other obvious contender who can give you those Sanyang numbers when healthy. You can make a case for Hunter Brown. You can make a case for...

I don't know if Yoshinobu Yamamoto has the volume. I just don't think he has the volume. But yeah, I think it's pretty wide open. after that top three, but the top three is crystal clear. Freddie Peralta had another solid start, eight strikeouts and five shutout innings. Five straight scoreless outings for him, 35 strikeouts to 12 walks and 28 innings in that stretch. 250 ERA, 341 XERA.

He is on pace to throw his most innings ever, might reach 180 for the first time. Is Freddie Peralta a top 20 starting pitcher next season? I think that's the tipping point. So it makes it hard to say for sure yes or no. I have him 19th the rest of season. Probably he'll be a little after 20 once you get some of those other names in there. But it's a it's a fair place to put it. I think the thing for me with Freddie Peralta is if he's a top 15 starting pitcher in the rankings or ADP, I'm out.

Yeah. If he's 24, I think I'm in. That's where I think it'll be. I think, yeah, I think people are not going to buy into it too much. Well, it's not even so much that. It's just there are more spectacular options that are going to come in with a clean bill of health and just push them down. Yeah, that's what I think it is. Yeah.

Ranger Suarez, no second half slide here. Six shutout innings, four strikeouts, two walks against the Brewers. It did look like he was hitting that wall. I think his first five starts in the second half. He had 21 runs allowed in 28 and two-thirds innings, and it was like, ah, here we go again. Since then, three runs allowed in his past four starts, 27 strikeouts to 24 in 24 and two-thirds innings with three walks,

trying to think ahead to next season. I feel like Ranger Soros is going to be a very controversial player. I'm going to guess he goes around SP40. Is that too low? Am I not giving him enough credit? Unless you're thinking he collapses in September, I think it's too low. Okay. I mean, look, he has a 32-E-R-A and a 342 FIP over the past five seasons.

It's just we know how thin the margin for error is. We know that he's not durable. We know he's 30, and we know he doesn't get strikeouts. So it's kind of like even his whip is not great usually. 120 or so over the past five years. So it's like, it's kind of just a good ERA. It's not that he's the same kind of pitcher, but it feels like he'd be valued sort of like

Shoda Imonaica would be valued. And that's probably behind that Carlos Rodon, Jesus Luzardo level we were talking about earlier, but I don't think it's that far behind that. So it may, I would guess they'll both rank in the upper 30s. So that gets close to the 40, 50 range you're talking about. But more like 40 than 50.

And then Blake's now, I have no idea, dude. I have no idea. I mostly think good. Yeah. His velocity was very down in his previous start. It was back up a little bit, but still down for the season as a whole in this start. 18 whiffs, a lot of weak contact. You give up five earn runs.

It seems like bad luck. I just I have no idea one where he's going to be drafted and two where I'm going to rank him I assume that we're going to do the yo-yo thing where everybody was way too high on him this season so now everybody was like I'm never drafted Blake Snell again and he's going to be way too low and if it's like 20 25 that's probably okay right I mean he was like eight this year I the sample is small enough and I kind of say this for every player but in Snell's case especially because of the sample the story's still being written yeah if he has a one ERA and 12k per 9 in September and keeps doing that throughout the postseason and he might be you might be top 12 next year but more likely he'll never I'm not I'm never doing that more likely he'll be top 20ish okay thank Uh, let's do some hitters. Kyle Teal, three for five, four RBI, three runs.

I thought about him as my player of the night. Hit another home run. Are we just underrating this dude? He's up to a 293 average, 390 on base, 440 slug as a rookie. And the underlying numbers, at least at last check, totally back it up. Well, and I don't know who you mean by we. You love your royal wee. The royal we.

Well, in this case. We Who plays for the Royals? The podcast, I think. Oh, okay. So that's, okay. We've talked about him a lot lately and mostly in a favorable light. I think he is outshined by some of the other rookies that have performed well. I mean, there have been so many, Drake Baldwin, Augustine Ramirez.

I like both of them. Maybe also Samuel Pesayo obviously hasn't done much yet. But, you know, he's arguably the best hitting prospect of baseball. I think the skill sets better, yeah. Yeah. So Teal, I don't think, can live up to them. But like normally we'd be really excited about a rookie as good as him. He's he's done about as much as he could possibly do to put himself in a good position for 2024. It's just that there are limits for the upside. Yeah. All right. Trent Grisham. I mean, hit his 30th home run of the season on Thursday. That's incredible. his ex-home run, his expected home runs on Stackass is like 22 or 23. So there's been some good luck. I think what his outlook for 2026 is going to look like is going to depend a lot on where he lands.

Because he is a free agent. I mean, have a walk year, Trent Grisham. Incredible stuff. He was looking like he was destined for a bunch of one-year contracts to run out his career as a fourth outfielder. And now is Trent Grisham going to get like $80 million this offseason? 100 million? Uh, it's, it's hard to say. He'll get a multi-year deal.

Yeah, that's probably a passable. Yeah. He's not as good as a defender as he used to be. He used to be a great defender. He's only 28, but he, he has good on base skills. Powers playing. And the power's playing, like, it's not just like he's exploiting Yankee Stadium. In fact, I think he's hit for more power on the road.

I think it's a little bit of that. But. I'm not saying it's a fluke. I just think who would you rather have for 2026 Trent Grishman or Joe Adele better pull air rate much better strikeout rate I would rather have I would rather have a Dell except maybe in points leagues it kind of depends where Grisham winds up though yeah is he got he's back with the Yankees then great what what was that is he a part-time player again though he's been a full-time player in the second half like if he gets the kind of

contractor talking about he won't be a part-time player that's fair Mookie Betz hit a home run in that was the one to break the shutout, I believe, for the Pirates. He's been better lately. I still don't really know what to make. His ex-Wobo over the past 100 played appearance is 388. That's excellent. So the numbers I've written down here is since August 5th. So that's a 26 game stretch.

Mookie Betz has hit 327 with four home runs. 12 walks to just six strikeouts again in 26 games. A bunch of multi-hit games in there. But the most notable, I think, during that 26-game stretch, 90-mile-per-hour average exit velocity. When for the year, it's 88.7. 88.7 suggested that Mookie Betts was on the decline. Like, he's never been like a huge exit velocity guy, but 88.7 is lower than we're used to seeing from him. 90s more, that's about right.

That's more like the moogie bets we're used to seeing. And because obviously his whole season has been tainted by that illness he had at the start with the trip to Japan and he lost a bunch of weight, couldn't keep anything down for a week. It's a viable explanation for why he just didn't have the same juice. It's not conclusive by any means, but it's at least a reasonable. theory. And then, you know, now that he's had this since, basically since the start of August, where he's, he has hit the ball harder, it, it kind of tips the scales more to the side of, oh, maybe Betts isn't aging out. Maybe he just was kind of physically worn down before the season even started and is, is only now looking like himself again. So, uh, I don't know, reports of his demise may have been exaggerated. We'll see what the posties is, looks like especially i'm thinking it's like a top 50 pick rather than a top 25 pick for 2026 yeah i can't imagine he'll be top 25 unless he just goes completely bonkers from here on out but top 50 he's put himself back in the top 50 conversation there's gonna be a ton of runs

good batting average still feel very good about that stuff uh and then yorda on alvarez three for four with a home run a double and all of a sudden his ops for the season is up over 800 it was 646 when he went the I. He has 11 hits in his past five games. Yordon Alvarez is awesome. I'm probably going to rank him as a second round pick next year. That might be too high given his injuries, but this year's injury, I'm not going to hold against him. Yeah, I don't think the upside has changed.

I just think, I think people will naturally be hesitant to buy into it. So you won't have to get him in round too. That's my hunch. I think Junior Camero is going to go ahead of Yordon Alvarez. I'm not sure he should. I'm sure. he should. I'm not sure he'll have the better season next year, but nobody's sure of that. Yeah, I, I'm probably going to rank yard on Everest too high and everyone's going to yell at me.

All right. Before we go, pitching leftovers, Christian Javier, he doesn't have the slider or the sweeper yet. That seems to be the biggest thing. He was like an 85, 90% fastball sweeper guy. And he's throwing it about 15% of the time so far this season. And I feel like you see that sometimes when guys are coming back from Tommy John surgery. He just doesn't have the feel for it. Hopefully I'm not sure he has the control either. Like overall, I'm encouraged, but it's, you got to play the matchups for sure with Javier.

And then Noah Cameron, uh, he's given up nine earn runs over his past two starts, 418 ERA since the All-Star break, only 30 strikeouts and 43 innings. I think he's just a guy. I've made some Bowden Francis comparisons, and I, I feel like that's what we're seeing.

Well, this start, the final line wasn't great. He got a ton of wifts, the second most wifts he's gotten all year. And everything, the velocity was up one to two on everything. So that was interesting enough to mention, but not interesting enough that like, oh, I got to get Noah Cameron back in my lineup. All right. And then the call to the bullpen, Yon Duran got his 26th save. Carlos Estavis got his 37th. He's going to have 40 saves this year.

What a pick he ended up being. And then Colin Holderman got the. the save for the Pirates with Dennis Santana. Unavailable, he will be back to being the Holderman tomorrow. He was the saver man today. To stream or not to stream for the weekend, Friday, we've got Javier Assad versus the nationals, Dean Kramer versus the Dodgers, Ian Seymour versus the Guardians, Michael McGreevy versus the Giants, Jose Soriano versus the A's, Peyton Tolly versus the Diamondbacks, and Eduardo Rodriguez

versus the Red Sox. Yesterday, I believe we said Seymour, Soriano, and Tolly, not in that order. order and I stick with those three. The order I'd actually start them is I think Toli Seymour and Soroy. Okay. All right. Saturday we've got some guys who probably shouldn't, well, I don't know. Some guys who have been non-streamers at some point in their careers, but are currently in the streaming range of roster rates. Shane Boz gets the Guardians, Bryce Miller at the Braves, Martin Perez at the Tigers, Bailey Ober at the Royal, Stephen Colig versus the

twins and Brandon fought versus the Red Sox. I mean, Boz and Miller are clearly a step up in talent from the rest of these guys. They're just not pitching like it right now. I know Boz, I think his most recent start was good, but I have no faith in that. Well, it's a great matchup against the Guardians. And Miller's against the Braves. It's right now.

They've been one of the best offenses in the second half. So I think I'd leave Miller out. But Ober at the Royals is. And there have been some good signs, some not so good signs. I think there's enough reason for encouragement that if you're really, like if you're participating in this segment, you need streamers for whatever reason. I think Ober's one of your best bets for Saturday.

It's not a blanket endorsement of Ober. It's just the best of bad options. All right. And then on Sunday, we got Parker Messick at the raise, Tomi Yuki Sagano versus the Dodgers, Charlie Morton versus the White Sox, Brandon Sprope making his major league debut at the Reds,

Andrew Alvarez at the Cubs, Luis Garcia. at the Rangers, Luis Morales, at the Angels and Mitch Ferris versus the A's. I think Sprote is fine. I think Morton is fine. And I like missing. I think the best is Luis Morales. I missed that one.

Yeah. That's the one I can give a full-throatant endorsement to. If you're participating in this segment, like you need a streamer for some reason, then I think you could consider Sprope, Morton, and Messick. but I don't have nearly as much confidence in them. All right, and that's going to do it for fantasy baseball today. We will see you on Sunday night, Monday morning when Frank will be back. Take care. Bye-bye.