Fantasy Baseball Today - Fernando Tatis Suspended, Rasmussen Near Perfection & Start or Sit (8/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

Fernando Tatis has been suspended 80 games for testing positive for a PED (3:55). What will his value be in 2023? ... Drew Rasmussen was near perfection on Sunday (10:54). ... Add Vaughn Grissom or Jorge Mateo (17:20)? ... Trent Grisham is hot this month (21:05)! ... How much are we buying Michael Wacha's great start Sunday (23:30)? ... DL Hall made his debut this weekend and CJ Abrams is getting called back up on Monday (32:30). ... News (38:54): we have updates on Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. ... Start or sit these banged up players (44:50)? ... Do we have any interest in deep league adds (47:30)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (53:10). Want a spot in our 2023 FBT listener league? You can bid on it with all proceeds going to St. Jude's Children's Hospital here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374211896271 Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." 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. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, August 15th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Pretty crazy weekend for baseball on and off the field.

cores today on the show. Fernando Tatis's suspension, we will start with that. A bunch of prospect happenings, the waiver wire, starter sit, and much more. But first, Scotty, I know that you went to the Marlins Braves game this weekend. So yes. Give us the lowdown on

Lone Depot Park. I think that's what it's called. Yeah, with a lowercase L. Interesting. How is it? Why? It's an odd branding decision. It just looks like an eye and a very difficult word to pronounce. How is it? Well, it's not, but it's not the first time I've been there.

It's the first time in a while. It was the first time I took my kids to a baseball game, an official MLB game that counts in the standings. And so that was fun. It's a nice enough park. It has its charms. It's always a little weird. Nobody was there.

Well, that's the biggest. drawback. Most of them were, most of the people who were there were in Braves' jerseys, I will point out. But no,

what I was going to say is it's a little weird playing baseball under a roof. It's definitely more enjoyable with air conditioning, though. So it's like,

you know, at August in South Florida, do you really want to sit out in the open? No. No, you don't. And, of course, there's a lot of potential

for rain out. there without the roof so like it's it's worth it but it you know it kind of doesn't feel like baseball too you know oh I hear you the whole thing feels a little smaller I went to Arizona last year in August which is just a terrible decision don't ever do it and I went to chase field see a Diamondbacks game and it was the same thing it was like my first time at a baseball game with a roof where it was air conditioned and it was like pretty Cool. I've got to admit that.

But yeah, it was also kind of weird seeing a baseball game in that way. You guys see that this is you guys, I went to the Humphreedome in Minneapolis. I've, I've been to Tropicana. Like those are weird places to see a baseball game. At least Marlins Park and Chase Field and these like new stadiums. They've got really tall roofs. But like, Tropicanna and the Humphry dome are like, it's like claustrophobic. Oh, I can.

Yeah, I could see it with Tropicana. I mean, obviously everything that goes on in that place. but I feel like, it's a weird, that's a conversation for another day. Speaking of the Marlins, real quick, we'll wrap up with that. Where am my Marlin's jersey, Sandy Alconcer, Chris? So I am now an honorable Marlins fan joining you. So thank you for letting me be part of the club. I mean, look, who am I to kink shame?

If you want to, if you want to feel the shame of being a Marlins fan, who am I to disemite you? You know? Honestly, if I had to choose like a favorite, National League team just based on the players they have. I would choose the Marlins because... I mean, look, you would have had something to cheer for in 2003. Wop, wop. All right, Chris, you're, uh, we're, I don't know, we're gonna ban you from the podcast for like the next 10 minutes, just kidding.

Let's start off with Fernando Tatee Jr. obviously here. Suspended 80 games. This Jeff Passenbaum just dropped on Friday afternoon. It was like, oh, you know, whatever, Friday news dump. Oh, Fernando Tatis out for 80 games. Crazy stuff. Testing positive for a performance enhancing substance, claiming that he inadvertently took the substance as part of a medication to treat ringworm but it turns out

that he's not appealing the suspension or anything so whatever he acknowledges that he made a mistake and to be clear he did appeal the suspension because apparently at least it's been reported that the suspension happened in the test happened in May or March and it just wasn't announced because I think this was a Hector Gomez I think I saw that it wasn't announced because he was out and so they they went through the appeal process and it finally got announced. At least that's what I read.

So obviously. Seems like a bad choice then. Because he was injured that whole time. That just makes it worse. It was reported that the Padres didn't find out until the afternoon we all found out. That was going to be my next statement. I'm like, oh, well, I guess that's why they traded for Juan Soto, but that part doesn't make sense.

That's weird. Yeah. Yeah, very weird. Anyway, Tatis, for the rest of this season, he will miss the remaining 48 games for the Padres. and he will miss, obviously, the beginning of next season. And it depends how many games they play in the postseason, assuming that the Padres play in the postseason.

And that will determine how many games he misses next year. But let's just say he's going to miss the first month of the season for next year. We'll get into that, like, you know, how that affects his draft stock for next season. But I do want to point out that I've notified the authorities at CBS, and he has been removed from the undropable list. So I know some people reached out about that issue, and it seems like you can drop Fernando Tatis now, which obviously makes sense in redraft leagues.

Now, for next year, Scott, let's just assume it's the first month that Fernando Tatis is missing. Where do you think he's going to get drafted for fantasy purposes? Well, where do I think he will get drafted or where would I take him? Because I think the answer is different there. And fortunately, we've kind of gone through this once already

with the player who, at least at the start of this year, valued as closely to Tatease as anybody could be. And that's Ronald de Kuna, who was projected to miss the same amount of time at the start of this season. He ended up being a late first rounder, I guess, in five-by-five leagues anyway, his better format. I was not willing to take him until, like, the middle of round two, which means I'd ever got a chance to take him, and that's fine.

I think even with Akunia kind of hitting his best-case scenario with the time, timeline, it's still, it's still, it's still, it's still fair to wonder where he should have been taken. I don't think, I don't think it's clear cut that the people who took him in the first round benefited from that. So, and then in Tatis's case, I mean, we won't have seen him play yet after the wrist surgery. He has a recurring shoulder issue that could always pop up and set him back further. So there's just like, yeah, it would kind of be the same thing for me. I haven't actually lined up the players yet, and it wouldn't make sense to really until the season's over.

But I am myself not willing to look at Tatis until the middle of round two. And you've got to consider also you won't be able to put him in an aisle spot, unlike Acuna, which hurts him taking up a bench spot all that time. Yeah, so I'm looking at Fantasy Pros ADP from before the season, and Ronald Acuna wound up at 13. 2 when everything was said and done. So I do think we'll probably see a similar value for Fernando Tatis heading into next year. Late first, early second round.

Scotty there saying he's probably wait until the middle of the second round to draft Fernando Tatis. Chris, do you kind of agree with that sentiment, that valuation of Fernando Tatis? And do you have any thoughts just like from a macro career perspective? Because obviously like this is huge for baseball because I don't want to assume things. Like, obviously the guy is still super young, but I mean, any chance at the Hall of Fame is probably gone now for Fernando Tutsis. Yeah, I mean, I don't think we have not seen a player who failed a test making the Hall of Fame. But we also haven't seen a situation like this where it's so early in his career that like, you know, he's got what 13 years left on his contract, something like that.

So like he's 23. Like most players haven't even reached the majors yet. He has time for a whole career. Yeah. I would think it won't matter if he stays on the trajectory he was on, which is he's got 81 career home runs before his age 23 season. So that's pretty incredible. It's likely 20 years before he's up for Hall of Fame consideration.

I mean, it's going to be a completely different generation of voters. God. I'll be 54. Who knows? Maybe I'll be one of the voters by then. Probably not. Probably not. But yeah, no, I don't have much worry about that.

I don't know, there were a lot of pointed quotes out of the Padres dugout or clubhouse about Tatis. And, you know, I think his teammates should feel really let down by the way this season has gone. Getting hurt in a motorcycle accident is just dumb. Like, you just, I don't know, man, don't ride motorcycles if you're a professional athlete. I don't know. It seems reckless. And then getting suspended for steroids. Like it's just,

he's let his team down in a big way. I don't know. AJ Preller was ticked. Yeah, no. It's rare that you see teammates criticize a guy publicly in the way that they did. And so, you know, I think he's going to have a lot of work to do to repair things in that locker room. But, you know, if he comes back next to. season and it's you know the the end of May and he's played a full month and he's got a

960 OPS I don't think anybody's gonna really care yeah I thought the most interesting one Chris and I saw you tweet about it was Mike Clevenger who not that he's been any angel everyone's situation is different but kind of pot calling the kettle black calling him out like I don't know yeah I wasn't really a big fan of that but whatever if there is one positive from this situation which is obviously weird to talk about but Hassan Kim should keep an everyday role now as a result, and he's played very well.

So he's 22% rostered. He's got second, third base, and shortstop eligibility. Looks like he will continue to play shortstop for the San Diego Padres. So there you go. Fernando Tatis, going to miss likely the first month of the season, probably looking at the early to mid second round, where he will be drafted next year. But we've got a long time before we get to that.

All right, now let's actually get into the on-field action. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Scotty, I will let you kick us off. And will you do Vinnie Pass Quantino for the, I don't know, third day in a row? No, I should. I should. He deserves to be. I said, oh, my goodness gracious, when I looked at the box score and saw what Vinnie Pasquantino did Sunday.

But no, I'll spare you that. Pick up Vinny Quest Quantino if he's still available. He isn't like a third of CBS Sports Leagues. Anyway, who am I going to do? I don't even remember now. Who'd I say I was going to do? Drew Rasmussen. Dr. Rasmussen, yes.

The even bigger breadstick. Drew Rasmussen, yes, because he took a perfect game into the ninth inning against the Orioles. That was broken up on a Jorge Mateo double. It ended up going eight and a third in all. Mateo came around to score. So there was one run aloud. No walk, seven strikeouts. It was about the best we've ever seen, Drew Rasmussen,

and 17 swinging strikes on 87 pitches, very, very efficient. Like, there was no question he was going to get a chance to complete this, to try to complete this perfect game because he was just throwing so few pitches every inning. But on that note, like going deep into games

hasn't been something we've seen a lot of from Drew Rasmussen. His last start of even seven innings was June 4th. He's gone six plus innings five times all year. he is even prior to this great start he's rostered in 74% of CBS sports leagues I imagine that's because he has an ERA below three

I guess seven wins now it's a decent total obviously the race helping him out with that one win in the last two months before this though actually one wins since the end of May okay good point good point and yeah obviously the starts have been

especially short since he came back from I know. What I'm trying to say is, I think Rasmussen is rosterable. He's useful. I don't really think this perfect game changes. It wasn't actually a perfect game. This near perfect game, whatever you want to call it.

I think that's fair to say. I don't think. A near perfect game is kind of like a near miss in a plane crash, you know. Near miss doesn't count. Right. It doesn't. It's like four shoes, as they say. You know, 368 X-Fib, the X-ZRA is even higher.

He doesn't go that deep into games. The strikeout rate is, you know, less than one per inning. Pretty good ground ball rate, but just kind of a, kind of just a pretty good pitcher with RP eligibility and not really much more to take away from this than that. Yeah, I think the RP eligibility is probably why he's so widely rostered in CBS Sports Leagues. I would guess in other form. where the SPARP doesn't matter. He's probably a little lower.

But yeah, like, he's a good pitcher. He's not an ace. And even in this one, like you saw, he doesn't pitch deep into games. He pitched deep into this one through 87 pitches. You know, he needs to be incredibly efficient to go deep into games. It's really hard to do that.

So, you know, I think I agree with Scott's assessment there. All right. Well, there are three names that stand out in the shallowest leagues. They're all between seven. 74 and 79% rostered on CBS. Scott, how would you rank these three if you're just looking to to add them from the weekend? Rasmussen and then Ranger Suarez who had a great start at the Mets this weekend, seven innings one run, four strikeouts for him and since returning, his walks are way down, his ground balls are back up, his swinging strike rate is also back up. He's 77%

rostered, also SPARP eligible, and then Brady Singer, really impressive start against the Dodgers on Sunday, six shutout innings, seven strikeouts with nice. 19 swinging strikes against one of the best lineups in baseball. He's 79% rostered at Tampa Bay this week. So really shallow league plays here, Scott, but how do you rank those three? Rasmussen, Ranger Suarez, Brady Singer. Yeah, I actually think I put Rasmus in the last of that group.

I could understand taking him over Suarez. Certainly the ERA and WIP overall have been better than Suarez. But Suarez has looked more like 20, 21 Swaraz, since returning from the IAL. You pointed out the walks, the ground balls. They're in the right direction. when he is going well like that, you can count on him giving you six plus innings

with more regularity than Drew Rasmussen. So I would put him ahead of Rasmussen. And Brady Singer, I think, clearly belongs at the top of that list, his start against the Dodgers on Sunday. One hit over six innings, struck out seven, 19 swinging strikes. And over his last seven starts now, Brady Singer has a 199 IRA 101 whip 9.7K per 9.

Has a 335 ex-fit for the year. And is looking like a late year breakout here. It's sort of hard to figure out how he's doing it, though. Because he really, he's got like one pitch. And he throws three pitches, sink or slide or changeup, but the changeup's not particularly good. And he only uses it 8 to 10%. He uses very sparingly, even against lefties.

Even against lefties, it's like a 17% pitch. Almost never throws it to righties. So yeah, I'm not 100% sure I buy it. The slider are really, really great pitch, though. So that certainly helps. That's what stands out most to me, Chris, is the fact that if you just look at the whiff rate, the slider has improved tremendously year over year and his control.

I mean, last year he was, I think, 3.7 walks per nine. And this year, he's right around, too. That's massive. You know, like a lot of the constituent parts make, you know, look pretty good. I just, I don't know how sustainable it is, but it's also at this point in the season, that doesn't really matter how sustainable it is. It's more like next season. I'm not sure I buy, you know, a Brady singer as a top 50 starting pitcher or wherever.

He'll likely end up if he finishes the season strong. Yeah, that's fair. All right. So we already have a bus pick for next year. We've got Fernando Tatis's value. All right. Oh my goodness, gracious for you, Chris, from the weekend. How about Von Grissom?

Who we talked a little bit about when he got called up, but he hit two home runs in his first weekend. He's, I don't know, the Braves are really good at developing young players. He's 21 years old. We're still not 100% sure what his long-term rest of season outlook is as far as playing time. But it's like I said, when he got called up, I think on Thursday's show. If he plays well, they're going to be. going to find a place for him. That's just kind of how these things work. If you're,

if you're a team that's hoping to make a playoffs and you've got a 21 year old who, you know, comes out and hits two home runs in his first three or four games and, you know, by the time Ozia Albiz is up, if he's got like an 850 OPS, he's going to play. You know, it's a question of where and how much and those are fair questions. But I don't think that would be a reason to not pick up Von Grissom at this point. He seems pretty athletic. You know, I don't know that it would be just a natural transition to just throw throw him in the outfield. They've got a couple of weeks here to kind of maybe work with him on that if they want to try it out. But yeah, he's, he's been really good so far. He hit his second home run

in game two of that double header on Saturday. He's got multiple hits in three of his first five games. This is Vaughn Grissom. He's 56% rostered. He's got seven home games this week. So he's pretty widely available. And I just looked at my leagues that ran Fab already. 15 team roto leagues. He went for, this is out of a $1,000 budget. 49, 57, and 12. So obviously the 121 is an outlier, but I think if you want them and you're still bidding, you're probably looking at like five to seven percent if you have that much left. So just kind of keep that in mind with a lot of a lot of steel in the miners already won in the majors. He reached base. This wasn't even one of the games he already. He reached base four times on Sunday. And yeah, I I agree. They'll find a spot for him. They might have to send him down for a couple days. just to get some exposure to the outfield. I could see it playing out that way. But they might not.

They might just throw him in the outfield. He's already played some third base in the minors, so I guess they could possibly stick Austin Riley back in the outfield where he first broke in. But I doubt they'd do that at this stage of Riley's career. Just seem kind of weird to have two players playing out of position instead of just one. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I agree with that. I mean, Austin Riley's... I think you seem to like Austin Riley's defense for what it's worth. I don't necessarily know that they should, but they seem to like him more than the external or the public metrics indicate they would. So, you know, I agree. It seems unlikely that they would move him out of that spot.

I had this for a little bit later on, Chris, but while we're talking about Chris, and would you rather add him or Jorge Mateo, if you just have to choose between the two? Mateo, another massive game on Friday night. He went five for five with two doubles, two runs, and two RBI. He's 63% rostered. You legitimately might have to choose between those.

two and 21 games post All-Star break for Mateo. He's betting 333 with four homers and five steals. He has been awesome. I think I'd have to go with Mateo just because stolen bases are so hard to come by, especially in a category of base leagues. Maybe in a points league. You could talk yourself into Grissom,

but it's also, it's always tough in those situations because it's less likely you're looking for help in a points league just because the rosters are so shallow. So I would say it's more likely you're adding Jorge Mateo. There is a clear strike. I mean, I mean, judging by Grissom's minor league numbers, which is mainly what I'm going on.

There's big, there's a chasm in how, between how often these two players strike out. So I would say, I would agree Grissom in points in Mateo and five by five. All right, fair enough. From Vaughn Grissom to Trent Grisham. That will be my, oh my goodness gracious player from the weekend. He went two for three with a sock and a shoe on Saturday, his 15th home run, his fifth steel of the season. and in 14 August games, Trent Cresham is hot right now. 275 batting average, five homers, one steel.

He's hitting the ball very hard, 91.5 mile per hour, average exit velocity during that time. Putting the ball in the air, 50% fly ball rate, and that has led to a 13.6% barrel rate for Trent Cresham in the month of August. And he's 42% rostered, pretty widely available. He's got seven games this week, only one lefty on the schedule. and it's Patrick Corbin, so, like, whatever. It's Patrick Corbyn, so I'm not really scared about that for Trent Grisham. Like, maybe he doesn't play that game, but so be it. He's hot, and he's got the games this upcoming week.

Scott, would you, how do you rank these three? Names that stood out to me this weekend, outfielders, Trent Grisham, Fran Mill Reyes, now playing with the Cubs. He went two for four, hit a home run on Saturday. And then A.J. Pollock, back-to-back games with multiple hits and a home run in each of those as well. All three are widely. available. Yeah, I think

Grisham's the most interesting of them. And I've been kind of a Grisham Downer since coming into the year. I had a preseason bus list and that's mostly played out as I thought it would. His inability to impact the ball hard

with this new ball. But he is impacting the ball really hard right now. And you know, he has a plate discipline advantage over those guys. a stolen base advantage over those guys, a lineup advantage over those guys.

I think in all three cases, you're kind of dreaming about upside and most likely not going to get much, but I think if you're going to dream about upside, then Grisham's probably the one to do it with. And it's worth noting, Grisham did start hitting the ball better in the month of July.

It's not necessarily just a recent thing. He only had a 211 batting average in the month of July, but his expected batting average is 251, excuse me. His expected Wobo was 339, which was the highest of the season by far. So, you know, not just necessarily a tiny sample size here for Trengrish. All right. Let's move back over to some WaverWire pitchers from the weekend and got a group of four names here. Michael Waco was amazing on Sunday night baseball against the Yankees in his return.

He went seven shutout innings, two hits, one walk, nine trycouts, with 18. swinging strikes in that start. He's 63% rostered. He's at the Orioles this week. Braxon Garrett bounced back with a strong start against the Braves. He went six shutout. Only two strikeouts to three walks, but a nice start here. He's 61% rostered at the Dodgers, so obviously don't like that matchup. Aaron Ashby gets back on track with a quality start at the Cardinals on Sunday. Six innings, two runs, five strikeouts there. Fifty-seven percent rostered and at the Cubs this week. And then Cutter Crawford turns in another quality start. He was up against the Yankees, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts in that one, and he's 27% rostered at the Orioles this week.

Chris, how do you rank this group, Waka, Gareth, Ashby, and Crawford? I would say Garrett, Ashby, Waka, Crawford would be the order I would rank them in. And I think they're, you know, Garrett and Ashby are probably maybe a little under rostered, although I don't think it's too much, 61%, 57% at this point in the season, you know, roster rates aren't going to move too much. So I think those all mostly make sense. Crawford is lower at 27%.

I think it should be, but I wouldn't be surprised if Cutter Crawford was better than Michael Walker the rest of the season. Michael Waka has that really nice 244 ERA and basically nothing else about him looks particularly good. So I'm betting against him

moving forward. And if you wanted to take Cutter Crawford over Michael Walker rest of the season just on the mystery box, idea. I wouldn't have a problem with that. Yeah. I agree with that. The problem with Garrett and Ashby is if, you know, you need to play this week. You obviously don't want to use Garrett against the Dodgers. Ashby against the Cubs, like, that's fine.

You know, it's an okay matchup. But, Scott, what do you think? Maybe if you just need to play this week to you maybe kind of lean on the Red Sox starters instead because they're at the Orioles. Although, I guess the Orioles are kind of good now. So the Orioles are good, but Baltimore is. a very good place to pitch now. True. I saw I want to say it was Alex Fast

tweeted that the park factor for home runs at Camden Yards went from the best in baseball last season to the worst this season, which is incredible. So, you know, while it's not a bad matchup, it's a pretty good place to hit.

Yeah. That's fine. I can't see myself starting Braxton Garrett. Like I, he does serves to be ranked the highest of this group. You know, the competition's not that tough. And he's certainly recently had the most success. I can't see myself starting him against the dog.

I'm normally not somebody who's like going to automatically sit a pitcher and maybe at Colorado. But Garrett, you know, the end result in this start against the Braves was good. but the Braves strike out a lot for as good as their offense is and Braxton Garrett had just the two strikeouts against them in six innings and that was remember this was supposed to be kind of a very important week for Garrett because his success was two starts against the Pirates, two starts against the Reds.

He gets the Phillies and Braves this week. It goes pretty poorly against the Phillies. Gets the quality start against the Braves, but did he pitch that well? did the reasons for our optimism against those bad clubs carry over against the Braves? And I would say it didn't. So I think the jury is still very much out on Braxton Garrett

and I wouldn't be willing to risk it against the Dodgers. Completely agree with that. Would you be willing to drop Corey Klobber for any of, I guess, the pitchers we've mentioned to this point? He has allowed four plus runs and four of his last five starts. His ERA is up to 4.40, and he's still 85% rostered. So I could see maybe dropping him for some of these names.

What do you guys think? I'm surprised it took this long for his numbers to get that bad. Scott, drop Corey Kluber for any of the names we just mentioned or maybe even the ones earlier? I mean, I don't have, yeah, I mean, that's fine. That's fine. Is, like, his ERA's blown up to 440 and his, Exfip is, you know, it's not that great either.

It's 382. So, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if he's better than all of them going forward, but like after giving up seven earned runs against the Orioles. It's the kind of thing, like, is there any opportunity cost to dropping him? I don't really think so. I think it's unlikely you're going to miss him. Right. Like, let's say he pitches to a 381 ERA with a strikeout printing the rest of the season.

Like, that's useful enough, but it's, it's probably not the reason you're going to lose a championship if it happens. Right. Some waiver wire pitchers in deeper leagues from the weekend. Domingo Hermann had his first quality start of the season at the Red Sox six eight, six innings, one run, four strikeouts there. Daniel Lynch, squirrel a start up against the Dodgers, five shutout with three strikeouts. Austin Voth quietly has been pretty good with the Orioles this season. He's pitched 42 endings with them, 3.21 ERA and an 11.8% swinging strike rate.

And then Tucker Davidson, who is now with the Angels put together a quality start against the twins on Sunday, six endings, two runs, three strikeouts there. And he's at the Tigers this week. We know that the Tigers are very bad. Scott, what do you think? Any interest in these names in Deeper League? Davidson, both Lynch and Herman. Yeah, I mean, I struggle with is bad pitcher worth picking up in Deeper League?

Because, like, it's just like, if I'm not starting a good pitcher, I'll just start a reliever. is generally how I look at it. And look, Domingo Hermann's been a good enough pitcher in the past, so I'm monitoring him. I haven't seen anything that wowed me yet. Daniel Lynch has, you know, that slider of his looks like a good swing and miss pitch. Very vulnerable to home runs and just not, I don't think he's quite rounded into enough that I'm willing to trust him.

Austin Voth has some interesting underlying numbers, but again, it's just not enough to wait. me over yet. All right. Anything with the Braves pitcher, Scott? I mean, they pitched well against the Marlins. It's kind of like you take it with a grain of salt. The Marlins lineup is so bad.

Chris, I think you said since the start of July before we started the podcast, you said they're averaging 2.6 runs per game. So obviously their offense is putrid, but do you put any stock in, you know, what these call-ups did this weekend, Scott? It's Ian Anderson, Kyle Mueller, Bryce Elder. They all pitched well, but they also all got optioned back to the minors. All right. Even the Braves know that, yeah, that it was, like, I kind of think,

because they skipped Kyle Wright's turn. He was dealing with arm fatigue. It doesn't sound serious. It just sounds like a skipped turn. But, like, you know, obviously they're trying to keep pace with the Mets. And I think they realized that against the Marlins, they could just run three minor league cal. Yeah, I'll call Ian Anderson a minor league caliber arm right now out there and probably win.

and that's exactly what happened. So this stat from Mike Petrillo, is that how you say his name? I think it's Petrielo. Petriello, thank you. Miami has now scored three runs or fewer in 15 straight, which is the longest streak since the 1979 Cubs. That's how bad they've been. Thanks.

So I will mention Bryce Elder had the most impressive start of the three struck out 10 in seven innings, three hits allowed. That was on Sunday. and we saw him up earlier in the year. Not really a pitcher who you think of being a big strikeout guy doesn't throw especially hard, average is 91. Only got nine swinging strikes. Yeah, and the AAA, like he had a couple AAA starts this good,

but the overall, like the ERA was over four overall. So I'm not, like, even though he was the best of the three, he had, like, from a dynasty standpoint, like he had the most ground to make up already. I don't think it really moves the needle for any of them. I don't know if there's another player that stands out to you guys, but more strikeouts than swinging strikes in a start. I just kind of associate that with Adam Wainer at this point.

Is there anybody else who does it more? Like, I feel like it happens so often with him. Maybe Martine Perez. Probably have as well as that gallon. Yeah. Martine Perez, I know he gets a lot of strikeouts looking, so he might be another one there. But yeah, anytime you see more strikeouts than swinging strikes,

It's a little bit skeptical, obviously. We did have some prospect happenings from the weekend that I wanted to quickly mention. The Orioles called the pitching prospect D.L. Hall who made his debut on Saturday against the raise. It did not go very well. Three and two thirds. Five hits, five runs.

He did have six strikeouts through 47 of his 76 pitches for strikes. And I was watching this start. Everything kind of snowballed in the third inning on him where he struggled with his command, which is obviously a huge problem for him still. and then he kind of became more hitable as a result of that trying to get back into the strike zone

but that is DL Hall and oddly enough option back to the miners right after the start and he's gonna pitch out of their bullpen in the miners and he's gonna return later this year to kind of I guess help the Orioles

make their wild card push so he will be back but it sounds like as a reliever Chris I guess that means that we don't need to add DL Hall and redraft leagues like how are you handling this show? I mean look he had a

a 452 ERA in the minors this season. There's clearly talent there. But, yeah, 1.416 whip this season, 5.2 walks per night. It's like a 13 or 14% walk rate. Tons of strikeouts, 37% strikeout rate. But yeah, I think he's clearly got a lot of work left to do to be a viable major league pitcher. And maybe he can come up in the bullpen and do some nice things. They've got a good bullpen already, so that would help.

But yeah, I don't think there's much reason to be in on him in redraft leagues at the very least. I think they're going to be cautious with D.L. Hall's endings as well, because last year, he threw just 31 and two thirds. He's already up to 81 and one third this season. If you combine the majors and the minor. So I think that's kind of the answer for the move to the bullpen as well. Scott, CJ Abrams is getting recalled, well, I guess just called up by the nationals. first time since being traded there in the Juan Soto trade. Luis Garcia was placed in the IL,

so they're obviously looking for some help in the middle infield. And so far, eight games in the minors with the nationals. He was hitting 290 with four seals. No pop, no homers during that time. But 33% rostered, seven games this week. Are you looking to maybe re-ad CJ Abrams in those deeper category leagues?

Yeah, and a deep enough one, sure. He's probably going to get the playing time's probably going to be less interrupted with the Nationals than it was with the Padres. They didn't, between either of his stints in the majors before, they didn't run Abrams out there every day. And the Nationals may have no choice but to do that. I'm skeptical he's going to make an impact this year, given that, you know, we have seen him get those two previous stints in the majors and did next to nothing. But if it's a deep enough categories league and guys like Jorge Mateo and Ivan Grissom are already gone,

then you could look to add Abrams, I guess. All right. A couple other prospect happenings from the weekend. Guardians pitching prospect, Peyton Battenfield, was promoted to be an extra arm out of the bullpen. James Karenchak was on the restricted list, but I don't really think there's anything there with him.

And then he's not a prospect, but he was pretty good in the minors. Rocky's 31-year-old outfielder, Winton Bernard was hitting 325 with 17 homers and 26 steals at AAA and he was called. You know what's going to happen. What happened? He's going to hit like 320 over 80 plate appearances over the next like seven weeks. And he's going to be a sleeper for fantasy next year.

And we're going to be furious when he plays two out of every seven games in April next season. He's going to be our Connor Joe for next season. Yeah. I mean, yeah. The number of players that that could apply to for the Rockies over the last like four or five years is immeasurable. Well, Sam Hilliard's another one. There's another name I'm blanking on. But yeah, this is...

Garrett Hamson, I feel like some people still think Gary's going to be something, but I don't think it's going to happen. Anyway, just the name to watch, I guess, Winton Bernard, he does have a little bit of pop and speed. And if he's playing for the Rockies, you know, maybe some good things could happen there. Before we hit the break, just want to let everyone know that fantasy baseball today is a finalist in the sports category

of the People's Choice Podcast Awards. Thanks to everybody who nominated us. So we really do appreciate that. The job, however, is not done yet. If you voted for FBT previously, then check your email inbox because they randomly selected some of those who previously voted to now vote in the finals. So voting runs through September 13th. Please go check.

And if you were selected, then help us out and vote for FBT. Also, the Fantasy Football Today draftathon is approaching. And if you listen to FFT with Adam, obviously those guys do a fantastic job. And this is a really, really cool experience. and it's a really great day. This draftathon, it's filled with fun and analysis, but the main cause is that they're raising money for St. Jude's Children Hospital.

And I'm happy to announce that we are auctioning off a spot in one of our podcast listener leagues for next season. So if you want to play against this, Scott, Chris and myself, you want a spot in one of these leagues, there is a link that I will include in the podcast and YouTube description. It's an eBay link,

and again, all of the proceeds for this will go to St. Jude's Children Hospital as part of the FFT draft-a-thon. So really cool experience there. If you want to get in, again, the link will be in the podcast and the YouTube description. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. The news and notes, and there's a lot from the weekend.

Bryce Harper will take batting practice on the field Monday the first time since injuring his thumb. Progress, good. Ronald Acuna, this is not so good. He left in the second game of Saturday's double-header with right knee soreness, and he was not in the lineup on Sunday. And it sounds like Acuna will not go on the eye. but pretty concerning. It's obviously the same need that he had surgery on. Scott, do you have,

have you seen more on this? Are you willing to still start him this week? What do you think about Acuna? I'm still willing to start him this week. Yeah, there was some question as to whether he'd play Sunday. And I think they decided to play it safe and had it from set another game. But I think he'll, I haven't seen officially, but I think he'll be back in the lineup, Monday or Tuesday. Mike Trout participated in a full round of batting practice. on Sunday, but remains without a clear timetable. He has said that he wants to return later on this season, so we'll see. George Springer is on track to rejoin the Blue Jays at some point this week.

He's been on the IL with elbow inflammation. And Chris, one of your guys. Are you rolling with George Springer this week? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if he's going to return early in the week, then I think that's okay. Yeah. Another one of you guys, John Carlos Stanton is targeting a full pregame routine on Monday and will hopefully begin a rehab assignment.

sometime this week. He's been out since July with Achilles tendonitis. So it doesn't sound like he will be back yet, but we're getting closer with Stanton. Wander Franco is nearing a rehab assignment with the Ray's Florida Complex League team. He's been out since early July with a fractured hamate bone, and the timetable for that was five to eight weeks. So we're kind of right in that time period right now. So I think we could see Wander Franco within the next week or two. Luis Severino will throw a bullpen session on month.

Monday, he's been out since mid-July with a strained right lat and is not eligible to return until mid-September. Clayton Kirshaw's back is feeling much better thanks to his epidural injection, and he currently remains without a timetable as well. Speaking of the Dodgers, Dustin May finally will make his season debut next Saturday against the Marlins. I saw someone tweeted us just before Scott saying, what's our prediction for strikeouts for Dustin May against the Marlins? and said something crazy, like 13 strikeouts over six innings pitch. I guess it's really not that crazy. I'm going to say 7 and 5. That sounds pretty good.

I'll give him a shot. I'll say 9 and 5. I'll go almost as aggressive as that guy. Very nice. I mean, that's what he was doing against AAA hitters, and I don't know that the Marlins lineup is that different right now. You're not wrong. Andrew Heaney left his start on Saturday with a bruised arm,

but he expects to make his next start. which will be at the Brewers. Ramon Luriano was removed Sunday with side soreness. Bailey Ober threw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Friday and is expected to throw another one on Tuesday. He's been out since early June with a groin injury. Chris, are you looking to stash, Bailey Ober, maybe in some deeper leagues right now?

He's 21% rostered. If you've got the I-L spot, I don't think he's particularly good, so it's not a priority for me. Fair enough. Michael Brantley underwent an arthroscopic laborer. repair on his right shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season. Brian Anderson and John Birdie were both reinstated for the Marlins on Friday.

Bertie is 55% rostered and we know that he can run wild. So if you need steals, he is out there. Brian Hayes has missed three straight with backspasms and Juan Ypres Pez could be reinstated from the IL on Tuesday. And Scott, if that happens, who do you think might lose playing time for the Cardinals? Well, it could be one of my sleeper hitters for this. week, Lars Noot Bar, even though he's been playing well of late, I would guess Yuppez wouldn't just have an everyday role right away. I mean, they have had a revolving door at D.H. So maybe they could

plug Yipaz in there primarily. But I'm not counting on Ypres being an everyday player necessarily when he gets back. All right. These names went to the IEL this weekend. The Nationals, Luis Garcia, with knee and groin issues. Alex Colomé with tennis elbow. Yonathan Dazza. Why is he playing tennis during baseball season? I don't know. That's a really fair question. Like riding a motorcycle. Come on. Speaking of which, I am scheduled to face off against Ariel Cohen in tennis later this week.

So I'll let everyone know how that goes. Last time, it didn't go well. Ariel beat me. I'll keep you off to date. Do you play much tennis? I dabbled sky. I played back in high school. And then I kind of, I didn't pick it up for, I don't know, six, seven years after that.

And I've started playing again the past couple of years. But you played in like an official capacity in high school? Oh, yeah. So you know what you're doing. I was, so it was kind of a weird situation. I did not play tennis at all before high school. And so when I played in high school, it was solely based on athleticism, which, let's be honest, you know, 15 years later, I don't really have as much athleticism as I did back in high school. So it's-

But you're pretty athletic back in the day, huh? I tried, man. Yeah, I played a bunch of different stuff. Basketball, baseball. flag football I've never actually been in the same room with you so I haven't gotten I don't even have a picture of the whole

physique of Frank I just I just know you from the arm see the full physique yeah I mean you're really not missing out on much Scott 5-9 175 just go find the video I tweeted of him dancing at his wedding yeah I mean that's probably the coolest thing I've ever done

so let's leave it there we'll make it happen soon don't worry I think uh I'll wind up in Florida eventually and we'll hang out, Scotty. A couple of their names went to the IL. Pirates reliever, Yeri DeL Santos. 60-day IL for him with a right last train.

Terrick Scouble was transferred to the 60-day IL as well. On Friday, he will miss the remainder of the season. Starters sit these players who are currently banged up. Kyle Swarber has not started three straight with that calf injury,

though he did pinch hit on Saturday. What do you guys think about Schwartz? Yeah, that's going to be a tough call. I mean, when you pinch hit, obviously that that that would suggest they're not planning on putting you in the IL

because that ruins the back date so I would I guess I'd lean yes on forber but it's it's going to be in like three outfielder head-to-head leagues and you know, wear your options I guess Luis Robert has missed two straight with a sprain left wrist and is not expected

to go on the IL and it's been a frustrating season for Robert production not necessarily where I thought it was going to be I thought he was going to be amazing and then on top of that he's just been constantly banged up. So Chris, what do you think about playing him this week? I would prefer to, but,

you know, like I'm facing a tough decision with Ronald Acuna. I feel like that's a similar one where I'm just not 100% sure. And I've got like Alec Thomas. So he's iffy enough that I might just go with Acuna and I think Robert's probably in the same spot. Speaking of Alec Thomas, man, I completely whiffed on this one.

Apologies. I thought it was going to. to breathe a breakout week for Alec Thomas. It did not happen. I think he had six fantasy points this week, so not that good. Not great. Not great. Jonathan India has missed too straight, but it is not expected to require an IL stint. Scott, what do you think about Jonathan India? I mean, he hasn't really done enough to deserve starting to start, even if he was completely healthy. So I'd play it safe with him. DJ LaMahue did not play on Sunday because of a foot and toe injury, and he will have imaging done on Monday.

This one sounds kind of scary, Chris. What do you think about DJLame? Yeah, anytime they're getting the MRI taken before the games on Monday, I would tend to say no and hope that you have some more information before you have to hit submit. So Kyle Wright, Scott, I saw he's dealing

with that right arm fatigue, which you mentioned, and he apparently will not start in this first series against the Mets either. So the first half of the week, we just don't necessarily know when he's going to pitch again. So what do you think about, Do you take Kyle Wright out of your lineups?

I would prefer to. Yeah, I mean, he's a top 30 pitcher, so I would imagine not everybody has that luxury. I expect he will start at some point this week. I think it's more likely than not. But you'd rather not take a zero from a starting pitcher if you can help it. Yep, for sure. All right, let's get into some other waiver wire hitters,

some deep league names here from the weekend. Isaiah Kiner-Felefa went three for four with his first homer of season on Saturday. It's, I mean, outside of no power, he's kind of just been kinder fluff. He's bet in 269. He's got 15 steals, 35% rostered with seven home games this week. David Fletcher had five hits this weekend. He has led off six straight for the Angels. And Rodolfo Castro went two for four with a home run on Friday. He plays for the Pirates, by the way. He has three straight multi-hit games and he's only one percent rostered. So very deep league names. He's got any interest.

I-K-F, Fletcher, or Rodolfo Castro. I mean, I guess Kynar-Fleff is still the guy. I mean, he steals some bases. He's in a good lineup. Like, Yankees fans really dislike Isaiah Kiner-Flefa, right?

Like, I've gotten that impression on Twitter in recent weeks that he is... John Carlos St. Aaron Judge apparently blocked most of the John Boy Media team because of the Isaiah Kiner-Falefa

stuff. weekend. Yeah. Which is pretty funny. Well, I, like, he's become the source of Yankees fans' iron now that Joey Gallo is gone. And, like, I get why Yankees fans were frustrated with Gallo. He goes from being this all-star caliber player to, you know,

unstartable. But, like, Isaiah Kind of Philefa has just been Isaiah Kiner Folefa. Like, if he's, if his performance has disappointed you, you had two high expectations to begin with. Starting middle infielder all season long on my first place Roto League. I've actually, I've started them all season long

in one of my 15 teamers as well and it's, you know, batting average and steals. Look, you're not getting to anything else, but 15 steals and a 270 average. Like, there are worse things you can get for your fantasy team.

You know, it is odd that I didn't realize that fans were coming after ICF. I mean, he has been a letdown defensively. I guess if there's one thing you want to point out, like he was regarded as this great defender

coming in. He has a positive defensive war, which is hard. The team's been bad this. The team's been bad for like a month and they have to blame someone. He has only 11 errors, which three quarters of the way into the season is pretty good for a shortstop. I don't, how has he been bad defensively? He is, according to statcast, he is 14th percentile and outs above average.

Why does he have such a high defensive war? I have no idea. But, I mean, I have seen a lot of bad throws from him this season. So, I mean, that's just my experience watching him. And I think, leave him alone. In general, people probably just want to say. see Parraza or Volpe and Yeah, wow. Those guys are not ready

yet, so it is what it is. A couple Deep League, I was about to say middle infielders, these are corner infielders. Emmanuel Rivera had a double dong on Saturday for the Diamondbacks. He had, he has six hits and three home runs over his last three games. And Joey Meneses,

he plays for the Washington Nationals. He has five straight multi-hit games and four homers in his last six outings, so he's playing well. And this season in the minors, he was hitting 283. 26, 20 homers and 830 OPS. Chris, 15 teamers. Any interest in these two? Emmanuel Rivera Joey Minesis. It would have to be a super deep league, especially for Meneas. Like I know his minor league numbers were decent this year,

but that's as a 30 year old in AAA. So I don't think there's much there. No, I don't have much interesting either. I don't think there is either. But like when you homer five times in your first 10 games, a 15 team league, like, He probably belongs on somebody's roster, right? I think he got picked up in all my 15 team leagues when waivers ran tonight. I didn't pick him up myself because I couldn't start another first baseman. But I don't know. Maybe he'll have like the odds are against it.

I get it. But maybe he'll have like when it like Luke Voigt wasn't supposed to be anything. And then he comes up hitting a bunch of home runs for the Yankees and becomes a thing, you know? Like the nationals don't have many hitters. So he's going to keep getting chances as long as he hits. You know what I thought you were going with this guy? I think Rivera is a little more interesting, actually. Okay.

I thought you were going the Frank Schwendell route with Joey Meneses. Yeah, that was the thought I had, too. Five straight multi-hit games, dare I say, Joey two hits. Joey two hits. I'm just going to speak that into the world. Okay. I think powers, like, Frank Schwendell is primarily batting average. In theory, obviously it hasn't for average this year.

Menace's, I think, primarily. Like, part of the reason he's 30 and just getting a call now is because he played a lot of overseas. But anyway, yeah, he's probably nothing. But he's, he's more interesting than like the last seven hitters you mentioned, probably. Well, my guess is that you probably won't care much about these two names either. Deep League outfielders, Greg Allen went two for four with his first home run on Friday. He has three seals over his last five games and is very fast. And Jake Fraley, with the Rends, has five hits in his last.

last two games, and he has let off both of those for Cincinnati, and he's 3% rostered. So you guys care about either of these names in deep leagues? Greg Allen, Jake Fraley. We liked Fraley coming in, getting a shot at the smaller venue after putting up some pretty good underlying numbers in Seattle. And yeah, he's hit well since coming off the IL, but I don't think he started against a lefty yet since coming off the IL, and so that's going to be an issue. and it's more of a scout team situation for me

than I'm picking them up. All right, let's get back over to the pitching side of things. And Lance McCullors made his season debut against the Oakland A's on Saturday. He went six shutout with five strikeouts in that game, and I did notice the sinker and curve velocity down one mile per hour each in this start, which, you know, for his first start,

that's not terrible he likely can build up. The only difference I saw in the pitch mix was that he was throwing his change up a little bit more compared to years past. and he's 84% rostered, probably not out there in many leagues anymore. Chris, what did you think about this season debut from McCullors? And would you start him at the Braves this week? Probably not.

I don't think there was all that much impressive about it. The velocity was down, seven swinging strikes on 81 pitches. I know that's not everything, but he was always a pretty good, not great pitcher at his best. And I just, I don't know if he's at his best yet. Oakland's a nice soft landing spot. Atlanta's a much tougher matchup. So I would prefer to go away from him. I still have a lot. I'm very skeptical still.

Start or sit these pitchers. Cal Quantrell back-to-back scoreless outings. He was at the Blue Jays this weekend. Seven shutout. Only one hit allowed. Seven strikeouts. And his velocity, his sinker velo up 1.2 miles per hour compared to season's average. And he's only 56% started this week.

But he's going up against the Tigers. So I think we got to get him in there, Scotty. Yeah, I don't think Cal Quantrell's ever a must. start, but if there's a time to use them, it's against what, at least for the season, still rates as the worst lineup in baseball. Marlins are going worse right now, but the tigers are still bad. Jose Berrios, two rough outings in a row. He was up against the Guardians, four innings, eight runs allowed in this one, two more homers allowed. He has now given up 26 home runs in 23 starts, which ties a career high, and he still has, I don't know, at least eight starts

left to go in the season. So it's, it's been a very bad season for Brillos and he's at the Yankees this week. Chris, would you start or sit there? I'd probably keep starting him, but it's mostly because I just don't, I don't have a good explanation for why he had, why he's good when he's good and why he's bad when he's bad. So I just stick with my baseline assumption, which is that he's pretty good. Well, the RA's what for the season now? Like I was, I was back on board. Yeah. I was back on board when he had that 3RA, even 3 ERA in July. But then, you know,

two terrible starts to begin August, and it's just like, I'm kind of the other way. Like, if I don't have an explanation for why I can still, you know, I can ignore these last two starts and based on the way his, the full season

is gone, I don't have a good reason to ignore the last two starts. I'm, like, he's an automatic sit for me, especially against the Yankees. Jose Burrios, The season long ERA here on August 15th is 5.61. And his expected ERA, according to Stackass, is 5.59. No, that's the thing is that the expected numbers have been dreadful all season. And so what I mean that, like, I don't have a good explanation.

It's mostly just that if you look at, if you compare his season over season metrics, obviously the surface level, like the strikeout rate is down. He's getting hit a lot harder. But like the pitch stuff doesn't look all that. much different. That's what I mean. Is that like it doesn't... No, I get you, but it's like it's mid-August. If it was mid-day...

Sure. That's fair. That's fair. The last two names here on this list, we'll just quickly run through. Nathan Avaldi, he's at the Pirates this week. He's, you know, the velocity is still down for him. And then Lance Lynn turned in a quality start against the Tigers. The problem this week, he's at the Guardians and they're a pretty pesky lineup. Scott, what do you think about those two?

Avaldi at the Pirates, Lynn at the Guardians. I'm not willing to trust in Avaldi until I see the velocity get back to where we're used to saying it remains down about two miles per hour even though he's managed to find a little success recently with it I don't trust him to sustain that I think Lance Lenn's fine to be honest I know his

like three of his last five starts have been great they were all against bad lineups but so are the two bad starts so we don't we can't even really we don't have like a control there to measure it against. I just think now, like he got his fastball velocity up to 93.6, I think is what he averaged in this start.

And last year, he averaged 94 on his fastball. So that's pretty much built up to where it was after being down early. He's getting enough swinging strikes. He's been a little rusty, but I think he's coming around. I think he's okay.

Righty. That's Lance Flynn. By the way, while we're on the subject of regaining velocity, did you happen to notice that on Sunday, Shane Bieber

averaged on his fastball 93.1, which is basically where it was early last season when he was getting like double-digit strikeouts every start.

And it's two miles an hour up from where he's been this season. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know where it came from. It wasn't an especially good start. It was fine.

It was normal Shane Bieber start. But like, that was encouraging to see. Yeah, his velocity was actually up on all of his pitches. Two miles per hour on the fastball, 1.5 on the slider, and one mile per hour on the cutter. So this is really the first start where we've seen this, but it's something to watch to see if that velocity remains up for Shane Bieber.

A couple of pitchers duels this weekend. Aaron Nola at Jacob de Grom. This was awesome on Saturday. Nola eight innings, one run, eight strikeouts, tough luck loss for him. Jacob de Grom, I mean, what do you say? Six shutout, any, he's got a 50%

strikeout, right? Six shut out. He's got a, I think, 48.3% K minus walk rate so far.

He has a 24.6% swinging strike rate and a 50% chase rate. League average for both of those numbers is 11% and 32%.

That's insane. He's just the best. I don't know what's like, of course, if you have them just like run them out there, I'm going to

stick to my default. I, I would still try and sell him if I could in a redraft league, but I also get why you wouldn't want to do that. So the only caution, I guess, is 76 pitches and back-to-back starts, but it doesn't even matter. He's still awesome, even in only 76 pitches. So whatever.

I guess the best way to put it is try to sell him, but for so much that you're probably not going to end up selling him. And that's fine, because he's Jacob de Grompe. Would you take Aranoa for him? No. I would. Maybe. I don't know. I definitely have no lower ranked higher.

I think he's impossible. It's impossible. That's not, that doesn't blow me away enough to trade de Grom away, I guess. Another pitcher's duel we had, Corbyn had, Corbyn, at Adam Wainwright. Burns went seven innings, one run,

six strikeouts, and then Wainwright technically, complete game, asterisk, because the game went into extra innings, but he goes nine innings, one run, eight strikeouts in that start.

Scott, anything on either of Burns or Wainwright? Not really. All right. They're burns in Wainwright. Sure. Wainwright, by the way, ERA is down to 3.27.

So just doing Adam Wainwright things. Any concern over Shane Mclanahan? Shane O. Mack. He's turned into quality start against the Orioles, but now has four strikeouts or less in three straight. He goes six innings, seven hits,

two runs, three walks, four strikeouts. So, you know, the whip is obviously high in this one. He did have 20 swinging strikes, so maybe he deserved more strikeouts he wound up with in this one, his velocity down a little bit once again. And during those three starts, he's got a 5-9-4 ERA 156 whip. Chris, what are your concerns?

I mean, everything. You know, we had some concerns about how he would handle pitching deep into the season. Now, obviously, those concerns were more about whether the raise would limit him. But I don't know, it's hard not to feel like he's hitting a bit of a wall. Now, the one thing is that, you know, his velocity has been a little up and down over the past couple of starts. I think the one before this start, it was actually up. But it had been down the two previous starts. So, yeah, but he clearly hasn't had the same sharpness or effectiveness.

And what you've seen here is that early on in the season, he was pitching six innings consistently because he was so efficient. Now in this one, he pitched six innings because they let him throw 100 pitches. I'm not sure they're going to keep letting him throw 100 pitches. And so I think there are real concerns about how DB is going to go into games if he's not going to be as effective. So I still think like I'm not saying you panic about Shane McClanahan, but given the concerns we had about how he would handle the late season and the innings jump, I think it's more than reasonable to be concerned. The problem is what do you do, right? So you continue to start him, I think. And you could try to shop him if your trade deadline hasn't passed.

But if I trade Shane McClanahan, I want a top 10 hitter in return or a top 10 pitcher. The other player in your league knows why you're concerned. Exactly. Presumably. So that's always going to be the question. Yeah, that's always going to be the struggle in these situations. Yeah. So it's pretty tough to really do anything actionable with Shane McClainahan.

So I would not be willing to trade him for even 90 cents on the dollar. Like I think Which means you're probably not trading them It's kind of the same way Well Aaron Nola would be 90 cents on the dollar right Would you trade McClanahan for Aaron Nola? Are you dropping? Are you dropping McLeanahan behind Nola

And your rest of season ranking? I think I would do Nola for McClainham, yeah I could see it. I would do it in a points league. I'm not that scared I'm not that scared money don't make money Yeah You already made money though

Here comes the money Here we go Money Talk Here comes the money. All right, we're kind of up against it here, so I'm just really going to pick out the, I don't know, biggest things remaining from the weekend.

Michael Kopeck, six no-hit innings pitched with 11 strikeouts against the Tigers this weekend with 22 swinging strikes. That was massive. Logan Webb had a huge game as well against the Pirates.

He went eight shutout with nine strikeouts. Blake Snell, just awesome start against the Nationals, his third double-digit strikeout start of the season. No walks. Yeah. I mean, that's been huge for him.

His last five starts, he only has five walks during that span. And a 0.96 ERA, well over a strikeout per ending during that time. 13% swinging strike rate. Scott, anything you'd like to add on, Snell, Logan Webb, Michael Kopeck, really big weekend for all three. Yeah, Snell keeps making me look like an idiot. So that's fun. I mean, if he's throwing strikes, the stuff is still amazing.

I don't really have, I don't really know why things have changed for him. But I guess I'm back on board with that. And Michael Kopeck, this was by far his most, like the best he's looked this year. 11 strikeouts season high. The 22 swinging strikes were a season high by like nine, I think. Again, hard to understand why he wasn't throwing that much harder. The velocity's been down since moving from the bullpen. but it didn't improve enough to make me think that's the reason why.

I think it was more just he was facing the Tigers. But I would doubt it's the first time he's faced the Tigers this year. And then it didn't go like this before. So I don't know. I don't know what to make a Michael Kopeck. Still down on him overall. But this was nice to see. I noticed over his last, I believe it's four starts.

He has a 14.3% swinging strike rate. Obviously helped out pretty massively by this one. But a couple of other, those other starts have. have been pretty good in terms of whiffs as well. Some hitting standouts, I guess just the biggest stuff. Aaron Judge, sock in his shoe on Friday, up to 46 homers, 12 steals,

100 RBI for the season. Max Muncie, another huge game on Saturday. He went four for five with his 14th home run. And in August, he's hitting 400 with five homers and a near 98 mile per hour average exit velocity. So something is going right for Max Muncie right now. I'm not exactly sure what it is.

Maybe he's finally healthy. but he looks really good so far in August. And then got to mention, I mean, Albert Pujol's awesome moment Sunday, double dong for him, brings him up to 689 career home runs. Bullpen, biggest stuff this weekend. I mean, the Yankees is big right now.

I mean, Clay Holmes entered the ninth inning on Friday with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit, two walks, took his fourth-blown save in his last 12 appearances, and apparently the Yankees are considering removing him from the closer's role. So Scott F. Ross picked up the save on Saturday, And, you know, listening to the broadcast on Sunday night, it sounds like they still kind of want to build Chapman up.

They don't want to just throw them back in that role. So I think they're going to mix and match for now. He did work the eighth ahead of F. Ross. So I actually did pick up Fross in one of those deep roto leagues where you can never find saves on waivers. But I suspect, like Chapman's 70% rostered in CBS Sports League. So I'm going to write about him in the waiver wire column. I suspect he'll be back in the role soon enough. he's looked much better of late.

All right. For the Rangers on Saturday, Jonathan Hernandez picked up his third save. For the Diamondbacks on Sunday, Ian Kennedy picked up his eighth save. For the Nationals, I noticed that Carl Edwards picked up another save on Saturday with Kyle Finnegan pitching in the seventh inning.

So Edwards is someone who I added in a few deeper category leagues this weekend as well. For the Red Sox, I noticed John Schreiber pitched two innings, on Saturday, and he took his second loss. He gave up one run in that one. Garrett Whitlock actually picked up the save on Sunday, so again, those two are kind of alternating.

And then Alexis Diaz on Sunday. He kind of came into Save Hunter Strickland, who looked terrible once again in the eighth inning. Diaz recorded the final five outs for his fifth save of the season. Chris, if you need saves, how do you rank this group? It's a pretty big one. Alexis Diaz,

Jonathan Hernandez, Ian Kennedy, Carl Edwards, and the Red Sox guys. So that would be Shriver and Garrett Whitlock. Huh. I would think Hernandez, Diaz, Kennedy, Edwards, and then the Red Sox guys. I think it makes sense.

I mean, I think the Red Sox relievers are both really good, but they're... Yeah, that's the problem. It's like I have Whitlock and Shriver in multiple leagues, but not necessarily for saves. Yeah. So it's more like 15 team leagues where I'm looking for ratios, help rather than save. So if that's what you're looking for, I think those two might be the best

two pitchers here. But, you know, if you're specifically looking for saves, they're probably to rank last. Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream. We'll start with Monday. Aaron Savali versus the Tigers. You say Kukuchi versus the Orioles. No. Chris Bubbage at the twins. James Caprillion at the Rangers. Glenn Otto versus the A's and Madison Bumgarner at the Giants. Ooh, revenge game. I kind of feel like the abrupt no applies. for all of these. If I'm forced to pick one, I'm picking Savale against the Tigers.

On Tuesday, we have a ton of names. Kyle Gibson at the Reds, Edward Cabrera versus the Padres, Mitch Keller versus the Red Sox, Nick Pavetta, at the Pirates, Justin Steele at the Nationals, Jeffrey Springs at the Yankees, Zach Plesack versus the Tigers, Zach Rankie at the

Twins, Jose Katana versus the Rockies, J.P. Sears, at the Rangers, and Jose Suarez versus the Mariners. Mm-hmm. Gibson? I like Cabrera. I just hate the matchup. Steal of Washington, I'm fine with.

Yeah. Keller, I'm starting in a couple of leagues, but that's more because he's a two-start against with Cincinnati later on in the week. Actually, there are a few I'm fine with here. I think Kitana might be my favorite, actually. Right, yeah, I was just about to say that. Jose Cantana at home against the Rockies is probably number one. And then I'd probably go steal to... to police sack against the Tigers three, Gibson four. Yeah. And Edward Caprera, I mean, just make sure you add him because I think he's gonna be really good.

It's just don't really like the match up against the Padres, obviously. All right, we're gonna wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball. Today will be back again tomorrow. Bye bye.