Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Waiver Wire MUST ADDS! Ranking Pitchers, Stash Jonah Tong! (8/26 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Let's rank a bunch of these recent Waverwire pitchers up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome in to FBT Express on Tuesday, August 26th. I am Frank Stample joined by Chris Towers, and let's rank a bunch of young upside starting pitchers, lots of names that we've talked about lately, and the most added pitchers on CBS right now, Hurston Waldrop all the way up to 84% rostered, Cam Schlittler at 78% and Nolan McLean at 72%. I just wanted to mention Camp Schlittler, another great start here on Monday, six shutout innings, four hits, three walks, eight strikeouts. That's back-to-back quality starts with eight strikeouts in each. Chris, how are you ranking that group? Waldrip, Schlittler, and Nolan McLean.

Starting point is 00:00:45 I would go Waldrop, McLean, and Schlittler, and I do think Schlittler is maybe a half tier behind the other two, just because he's really dependent on what's been a very good fastball, has suddenly become one of the hardest throwers. baseball, which was not the scouting report when he was at the minor league level, and all of a sudden he's hitting 101 and averaging 98 with the fastball. So Schlettler's been very impressive. I just think McLean with those, you know, multiple really good breaking balls and sinker that's generating a ton of ground balls has been much more, or a little more impressive. I don't want to say much more. And Waldrop, the whole arsenal has really coalesced around that splitter, which has always been good, but now he's got the rest of the arsenal to go with it. So Waldrop looks really, really good.

Starting point is 00:01:32 Next up we have Bubba Chandler, who made his Major League debut on Friday. He threw four innings and picked up the save. We don't exactly know what his workload is going to be or when he's going to pitch necessarily moving forward. And Emmett Sheehan had a stellar start here against the red seven shotout innings with 10 strikeouts, had 19 whiffs on 96 pitches.

Starting point is 00:01:52 Kind of hard to answer this one, Chris, but who do you like more between Bubba Chandler and Emmett Sheehan? Well, unfortunately, I think it's actually kind of easy to answer it just because one of them's in the rotation right now and should remain so for the rest of the season. And the other one, we're hoping we'll get in the rotation at some point before the end of the season. So I will give Sheehan the Edge over Chandler right now. I think Chandler might have the better stuff, although Sheehan's stuff is very impressive in its own right. There are limitations in the workload for both of them. Sheen did get over 90 pitches, I think in three straight starts and finished six.

Starting point is 00:02:26 seven innings on Monday night, but he's had a lot of trouble pitching deep into games, and the Dodgers don't really need to give him a long leash. So I think there's going to be more frustrations, but he's very, very talented, and we finally saw him start to put it together on Monday. So I'll give She and the Edge there. And four interesting names in deeper leagues. We have Braxton Ashcraft with the Pirates, Parker Messick with the Guardians, Luis Morales with the athletics, and newcomer Ian Seymour, who pitches for the raise.

Starting point is 00:02:54 He made his first major league start here on Monday. looked really good. Five shutout innings, one hit, one walk, eight strikeouts. Kind of has this funky, left-handed thing going on. He has a really, really good change up as well. Chris, how would you rank those deeper names? Ashcraft, Messick, Morales, and Ian Seymour. I think I would go, Morales, sorry, Messick, Seymour, Morales, and who was the first one? Braxton Ashcraft. Braxton Ashcraft, I think, would be fourth. I will say, I don't know if you were planning on asking me about him, but there's one guy who's not at the major league level right now,

Starting point is 00:03:27 but could be by this weekend, who I might put in that first group we were talking about. That's Jonah Tong, Mets prospect. He's got a 40% strikeout rate between AA and AAA this season. He's about 25, 28% rostered right now, I think. Sounds like the Mets might call him up for the stretch run. He's been one of the most impressive pitchers in the minors. He's got this like Tim Linsicum kind of delivery and has huge stuff.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Eno Seras had a piece on the athletic saying, he has the best stuff left at AAA, and it's not even close, according to his stuff plus metric. And that's without accounting for that funky delivery that's going to cause hitters a lot of problems. So Jonah Tong is someone, if you've got the chance to add him before he gets called up, you should take advantage because he could be really special. Yesterday, I said this about Shane Bieber that him becoming available in NFBC leagues might be the last kind of prized asset crown jewel available. Could be Jonathan. Johnatong might be the last one, actually.

Starting point is 00:04:24 because again, what he's done in the minors this year, 143 ERA, 0.9 to whip, 179 strikeouts over 113 and 2 thirds innings. Just bananas stuff that Jonah Tong is doing right now. And the Mets are discussing, calling him up. He could be part of their rotation as soon as Friday if they do choose to go with him and choose to go with a six-man rotation. Let's take a quick break. I have a few hitters that we could talk about.

Starting point is 00:04:49 We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in FBT Express. Do these hitters deserve more attention lately? Mark Vientos, looks like he might be waking up. Two for three with two doubles and two RBI here on Monday, his last eight games. 387 batting average, five homers, 13 RBI, 96.5 average exit velocity. He's 59% rostered. And Colton Kouser, three for four with his 12th home run, three RBI on Monday night,

Starting point is 00:05:17 has homered in three of his last four games. He has started eight straight. He's 43% rostered. Two players that we just saw have pretty successful good seasons last year. Maybe they can finish strong. Chris, do you think that they deserve more attention, Viantos and Colton Couser? So Couser's 43% rostered. Vento's is 59% rostered.

Starting point is 00:05:37 I can see the case for both of those being a little too low, but I don't think either of these guys needs to be must rostered, at least not yet, because Viantos, for as good as he was last season, there were a lot of questions about him coming in. I think you, Skah and I all had him as a bust. coming into the season and that's come to fruition because the play discipline has not been good enough the batted ball quality has not been enough to overcome it we know he can hit the ball really hard we know he can hit for a lot of power it's just he has not shown that consistently enough this

Starting point is 00:06:08 season so i can't say vientoz is a must-start player but third base is so weak that if you don't have a good option you know and you're staring at him or lenin sosa i think they're very similar viantos probably has a higher ceiling but lennon sosa has been a a little better for longer. So I think it's okay to view him as a fine pickup where he's available. And the same for Kouser. You know, he's had such a tough season, had that thumb injury like two days into the season, has dealt with a concussion as well.

Starting point is 00:06:38 But he was a runner up for rookie of the year last season. He was a very good fantasy option. Anytime you get a chance to get a player with that kind of pedigree at this point in the season, I think you should look into it, yeah. And what about these last two names? recent promotions, Carson Williams with the Tampa Bay Rays, and Yostinkson Garcia from the Boston Red Sox. Do those two need to be rostered in any type of leave?

Starting point is 00:07:04 15 teamers, A-L-N-A-L-N-O-N-only, what do you think about those two? Garcia's super fringy right now. I just don't think he's going to play every day. He has real bad plate discipline concerns. Good pop, and he elevates the ball to the pull side well, but probably the short side of a platoon right now for the Red Sox. he's going to play anywhere close to every day.

Starting point is 00:07:23 So I think he's much more fringy. Even in a 15-team roto league, I think Garcia is just a bench stash to see if he can get hot. Williams, I have a lot of questions about as well. His plate discipline is really bad. He chases a lot. He swings and misses a lot. Really poor plate discipline there.

Starting point is 00:07:40 But there's power. There's speed. He's a potential gold glove-level defender, so he should play regularly for the raise. And in 15-team rote leagues, I think Carson-Williams is probably pretty, close to Mustad just for the upside of the power and speed. 12 team, I added him in a few.

Starting point is 00:07:58 Yeah, I think he can be, there's a Trevor story like outcome there for Carson Williams at the higher end of his results. So that can be a very useful player for Rodo. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-lane podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express. We will be back again on Thursday. Bye-bye. Podcasts.

Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Waiver Wire MUST ADDS! Ranking Pitchers, Stash Jonah Tong! (8/26 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

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