Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Waiver Wire MUST ADDS! Tyler Freeman, Noah Cameron Keep Impressing! (7/8 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Who are the latest Waverwire ads? Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome in to FBT Express on Tuesday, July 8th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers. Let's take a look at the most added hitters right now on CBS, and two of the top three are middle infielders. Otto Lopez from the Marlins, Trevor's Story from the Red Sox. Chris, who do you prefer between those two, Lopez or Story?

Starting point is 00:00:27 So I feel like there are multiple questions in here, right? Because I think Trevor Story is probably the better player for fantasy moving forward. You're going to get a bad batting average, but you're going to get more pop and more speed from him, probably more RBI and maybe runs too. So the overall package, probably a little better. But he's a decent amount more rostered than Otto Lopez, right? I think Otto Lopez is up to like 65% and Story is at 78, something like that. Yeah, so like that's where it becomes a different question

Starting point is 00:01:05 because if you're asking me who should people go out and add, I think there are probably more leagues where Otto Lopez is worth adding than Trevor Story. I think Trevor Story's pretty close to his max just because I think it's going to be a bad profile for points leagues. He's only shortstop eligible, which also makes it harder to get him into your lineup. I think he's a better roto league player, but Otto Lopez is a decent roto league player,

Starting point is 00:01:29 and he's on a not quite 20-20 pace, but not far off. He's going to give you a better batting average than Trevor Story. I know he's only hitting 250, but it's a 294XBA. He's got much better plate discipline. And the fact that he's second base eligible means that Otto Lopez and Trevor Story should probably be rostered in roughly the same number of leagues, and Otto Lopez is trailing behind him. So if you're in a league,

Starting point is 00:01:55 where Otto Lopez isn't available. I think he's an interesting ad. And in head-to-head points leagues even, he might be a fringe starting caliber second baseman. We do have a couple outfielder's near the top of the most added list. Addison, Barger, Kyle Stowers, Austin Hayes are the three names here. Chris, how would you rank those three? Barger, Stowers, Austin Hayes.

Starting point is 00:02:20 That's a really tough one. I think, I like all three of these. players. The underlying data for all three of them is really good. It's probably best for Addison Barger just because he's hitting the ball really hard, 93.4 mile per hour, average eggs of velocity. He hasn't really slowed down very much either. So I'm inclined to put him first, but I like Austin Hayes a lot. And I think Austin Hayes is probably one of the more under-rastered players. And that's been true for a lot of this season because he's dealt with some minor injuries, but he is a perfect fit for Cincinnati. We said that when he signed there. It's been true

Starting point is 00:02:56 so far this season. I think Austin Hayes is a 260, 265 hitter with 25 plus homers and good RBI numbers playing in that ballpark. So I like all three. I would probably go Barger Hayes Stowers if I have to rank them. All right. And one name in slightly deeper leagues. Tyler Freeman of the Rockies is crushing it right now. He's been leading off for them lately. He's hitting 3.43, 12 stolen bases, and 885 OPS, and doesn't strike out very much either.

Starting point is 00:03:30 So, you know, in points leagues, he could play a factor here as well, 37% rostered. I'm interested, Chris. Any leagues with middle infield spots at least, and I think he's slowly playing his way into points leagues as well. We don't get a lot of opportunities

Starting point is 00:03:47 to say nice things about the Colorado Rockies. So I will give them this. Them moving Nolan Jones for Tyler Freeman before the season, I think a lot of people saw that move and did not understand what the Rockies were doing. It didn't make sense. You have this player who has shown upside. Why would you get rid of him when you need talent?

Starting point is 00:04:06 Tyler Freeman is a much better player than Nolan Jones at this point and looks like an absolutely perfect fit for course feel with that high contact skill set 8.1. 1% strikeout rate. He doesn't chase very much. He makes a lot of contact. He's a good athlete. He's hitting the ball all over the field.

Starting point is 00:04:25 I think Tyler Freeman is pretty close to a must-raster player in any Roto League because I think he's going to be a very good source of batting average. Probably not 3.43, but his XBA is 322. And you wouldn't be surprised if a player who spends half his games in course field outperforms that. So, yeah, he might just be like a third. 325, 330 hitter the rest of the way, which is really rarefied air. He's a good source of stolen bases. I really like what Tyler Freeman's doing. I think he's a fringe starter in points.

Starting point is 00:04:58 Like you said. All right, let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in the FBT Express. Let's slide over to the most added pitchers. And yesterday we spoke about Brandon Woodruff. He's already up to 92% rostered. So it doesn't make sense for this conversation. But how about these four? Edward Cabrera, Emmett Sheehan, Noah Cameron, who had a great start here on Monday, and Ryan Nelson. How would you rank those four, Chris? Cabrera, Sheehan, Cameron, and Nelson. I think that's the order I would put them in.

Starting point is 00:05:31 So Cabrera, Sheen, Cameron, and Ryan Nelson. And mostly it's just ranking by strikeout upside. I don't think Cameron or Nelson have very much of it. But I do think Cameron probably has a little more than Nelson. Sheehan probably has the most. strikeout upside of this group. He's been absolutely ridiculous when healthy this season. We saw it

Starting point is 00:05:54 at the end of the 2023 season. He had a huge September as well. Misses tons of bats. The control's been excellent at every level this season when he's been returning from Tommy John surgery. Something you cannot say about everyone coming back from that surgery. It's just I don't know what the Dodgers plans are for him.

Starting point is 00:06:10 We already saw him make one start, get sent back down to AAA for two weeks, I think, maybe three weeks. They We've got Tyler Glass now coming back to the rotation this week. Blake Snell could be back by the end of July. Is there going to be a spot for M.S. Sheehan the rest of the way? Well, given the way things have gone for the Dodgers, you have to assume there will be some more injuries moving forward.

Starting point is 00:06:31 They've had a lot of trouble keeping their pitchers healthy. That's why they have so much depth. But is Sheehan going to be in the rotation to open the All-Star break? I would hope so. At this point, I would think so, but it's not 100% certain. So that's the only thing holding him back. But I think Cabrera and Sheehan probably need to be pretty close to 100% rostered. Would you take Joe Boyle over any of those names we just mentioned?

Starting point is 00:06:55 That's another one where the talent isn't really the question. He has huge swing and miss stuff. The question's always been about control. Well, the control's been good enough so far at AAA and then his two starts at the major league level, or two appearances at the major league level. That's the problem, though. He didn't start on Sunday. He came in in relief of Drew Rasmussen,

Starting point is 00:07:16 and pitched Drew Asperson pitched two innings, Joe Boyle pitched five. That might be the plan moving forward, in which case, Joe Boyle should be a pretty useful fantasy option. But in head-to-head points leagues, you're not going to get quality starts from that scenario. You have a decent chance to get some wins, but is he going to throw six innings? I don't know. So it's just the biggest question is how much can you trust the workload and the opportunity for Joe Boy? I believe in the talent. I think I would rather have him than Cameron.

Starting point is 00:07:46 and Nelson. I think he's just more talented, but that might depend on if I'm in a head-to-head points league versus Roto, and I'm looking for floor versus ceiling, because I think the other two guys do have a higher floor than Joe Boyle. And if you need saves, Ronnie Enriquez is someone who's popped up for the Marlins recently. He looks like a very talented reliever. Anthony Bender did pick up the save on Monday, but it wasn't a traditional save opportunity. And I think Enrique has three of their previous five saves before this. And then Shelby Miller went on the IL here as well. Kevin Ginkle got the save for the D-backs on Monday.

Starting point is 00:08:23 So much deeper league name here, Chris, but Kevin Ginkl does have some save experience. And there's nobody else left on the D-backs. Yeah, that's the biggest thing he has going for him. One, he's been a good pitcher in the past. Before this season, Kevin Ginkle had been a solid, like, low 3 ZRA guy for a couple of seasons. his DRA is over nine this season. He's given up a lot of hits, a lot of hard contact,

Starting point is 00:08:48 not getting as many strikeouts as in the past. But it's a smallish sample size. I think we're only talking about 18 or 19 innings. So I'm mostly willing to give him the benefit of doubt just because he's the only guy in Arizona right now, I think that can get saved. So I do think Kevin Ginkle is going to have an opportunity, whether he'll be good enough to take advantage of it,

Starting point is 00:09:11 an open question, but we'll take that chance. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-length podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again on Thursday.

Starting point is 00:09:29 Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Waiver Wire MUST ADDS! Tyler Freeman, Noah Cameron Keep Impressing! (7/8 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.