Fantasy Baseball Today - Fill in the Blank Rankings Edition! Lots O Interesting Pitching! (6/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 26, 2026

Junior Caminero smacked three homers (2:36). ... Ian Seymour was unhittable on Thursday (6:57). ... Tatsuya Imai makes it two double-digit strikeout starts in a row (14:25). ... The Guardians are promoting Cooper Ingle (22:54). ... News (26:04): Juan Soto returned to the Mets lineup. ... Kevin Gausman rocked two starts in a row (31:38). ... Fill in the blank (36:32): how high to rank Bryce Miller? ... Connelly Early dominated the Yankees (44:50). ... Troy Melton racked up the whiffs (54:18). ... Jose Caballero's power is up (1:01:00). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:06:13).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

And welcome in, Tom Fantasy Baseball today on June 26th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Junior Camerro, not one, not two, three homers here on Thursday. We'll do fill in the blank,

rankings edition, and the Guardians are finally calling up Cooper Engel. We'll break it all down. There's only one place to start, and sing it with me. Ha! Ha, Camadero! Junior Camadero for three!

Three for six with a triple dong, six RBI, third homer off of a position player, but we're not going to talk about that one. We were waiting for a breakout game. He's been solid all season, but here we are. Now up to 19 home runs on the season,

walking a lot more this season. The OVP has been really, really strong here for Junior Camerro. I did just want to highlight this. I've kind of gone on an apology an apology. Nick Kurtz got an apology. Junior Caminero, I was worried about how he would fare

in Tropicana field this year. He's actually been amazing in Tropicana and he's been terrible on the road. Not terrible, but he's been worse on the road. So I did want to highlight that. I was wrong about that. It's been really good at home and now has 19 home runs in his first 78 games. Last year,

20 home runs in his first 78 games. So basically, basically right where he was at last year. Scott, is your guy, Caminero? Fill in the blank. He will hit blank home runs rest of season.

Hmm. He will hit 26 home runs last to season. Oh. Exact same number. 45, two years in a row. It's going to get hot in the summer months. Yeah, baby.

Let's do it. Yet to come, as good as he's already been. No, I mean, he's been, I think he's better. I think he's, look, just doubling the walk rate. It makes him a better player than he was last year. And he was historically good last year. And I don't know.

I mean, that take that you gave about him, you know, leaving Steinbrenner Field, very hitter-friendly for Tropicana, where sometimes there are sight issues. And you weren't the only one to have that opinion. Oh, no. Some people took it much further. It seemed like it was trying too hard to me because it would be different if Common Arrow was this out of nowhere stud.

Nobody saw him coming. And then he had like the most home runs ever for a 21-year-old. And then he does something like that. Okay, yeah, there's a lot of reason to think he's just a product of his environment. But Common Arrow for, you know, last couple of years in the miners was, in contention to be the top prospect in baseball, monster exit velocities. It made sense that he would do something like that as a player so young.

And clearly it's continued. Well, and I'd also just add that the reason Steinbrenner Field was such a good place to hit last season was because of the impact it had on power. and that actually wasn't why Junior Cominero was good at home last season, or at least that wasn't why he was better at home than on the road. He had 22 homers and 77 games at home. He had 23 on the road. Yeah, that's something we were pointing out at the time.

Those of us are believed. Yeah, the difference was he had a 197 Babbup on the road and a 324 Babbup at home. So there were reasons to not even, I don't even know if be concerned. was the right way to put it. But just it was an unanswered question how he would hit at Tropicana Field just because Tropicana Field specifically is a weird place to hit. It causes fastballs to move differently than they do in other places. Strikeout rates are much higher than there.

It's just there are reasons to think to have concerns about anybody who's going to hit half their times at court at Tropicana Field. But there was never a real reason to think. think that Junior Cominero was being propped up by Steinbrenner Field last season. That narrative was just just looking at surface level data. The way he hits the ball was going to play power-wise anywhere. And it was just a question of whether the contact skills would hang on and clearly they have. And I think he's a he's a superstar. Let's stick with the table. Bay race got the pitcher, the

bulk pitcher in this one. It looked really good. He was unhittable. He was literally unhittable. I mean, everyone on the race was until they brought in freaking Craig Kimbril for the ninth inning for whatever, for whatever reason. That was so good. Well, because

it was 13 to nothing. That's why they brought Craig Kimbril in. The combined no hitter that everyone would remember forever. It was ruined. Yeah, no, Ian Seymour. Ian Seymour is actually the ray I want to talk about, even though he spent just 10 minutes talking about common

arrow and related subjects. But Seymour, 6 and 2 3rd in, 6 and 2 thirds, no-hit innings. Strike out 7, 12 whiffs on 90 pitches. Coming into the game, he had a 13.2% swinging strike rate, which is very, very good. Average exit velocity coming into this game,

87.8, which is very good. very high fly ball rate, which when you're giving up weak contact like he does, is a very good trait. The way he summed up this start, Ian Seymour said, when you control the count and throw in the strike zone, good things happen.

Okay. You know, he entered with four walks per nine about. So, yeah, he was having trouble with walks there and did better with that. That's how he starts out. but this is how he finishes the statement. It comes down to the reps that longer outings allow you to have.

From a delivery standpoint, you just feel a little more crisp. And I think that's noteworthy because Ian Seymour is a pitcher who across five minor league seasons put together a 253 ERA, a 102 whip, an 11K per 9. Fantastic production. wasn't much of a prospect because he throws like 91. So it feels kind of like Joe Ryan when he was coming up through the Ray's system. I know Joe Ryan throws a little harder now, but he was dominating like this with velocities that low. Matt Quattaro, the Royals manager, said he's deceptive.

The ball gets on you pretty quickly. He did a good job of mixing it kept us off the barrel. I think when we were looking soft, he went hard and vice versa. He pitched exceptionally well. So Seymour, coming off this dominant minor league career, comes up to the majors, does pretty well last year for the time he was starting, moved to the bullpen this year, doesn't do very well. He wasn't much of a prospect, easy to write him off.

But, you know, by his own point of view, he says he feels like he just works a lot better as a starter. And so far, all the evidence we've seen of Seymar in the major supports that. And I know he technically relieved in this one, but the idea is he's transitioning to the starting roll. I think he got up to like 90 pitches, right? Yep, that's the thing that I think is most interesting here. And that's why they didn't let him finish out the no hitters

because like this is this is as far as he's been stretched out to. But it shows that they're willing to stretch him out, as I think you're saying, Chris. And that's what I was going to say is that unlike with Shane McClanahan, where the pitch count has been pretty consistently low all season, Seymour in the four starts, only two of them are actual starts, but they're starts. You know, he's pitching a starters workload. He's gone 55, 75, 72, 81, 90 pitches.

That suggests to me that the raise are going to at least give him that chance to get to 90 pitches. Nobody gets to 100 pitches regularly for the raise. I don't even think Jurassicson's done it more than a couple of times this season. And he's, you know, kind of the one guy they're giving the, the, the, starter treatment too. But they're not just pulling him at 80 pitches. And they're letting him get up. And so that's the key distinction where if it's only 80 pitches, man,

things have to go right, really right for you to get to six innings. And that's why Shane McClan-hand has only gone to six innings twice. If they're going to let you go 90, which Jurassicson has done eight times in 15 starts and a couple other times has gone 85, that's when, okay, you don't need everything to go right to get six innings. You just have to have a good start. And if we think Ian Seymour's a good starter, then he can get to six innings at least somewhat regularly.

So that's, like, Shane McLean hands a better pitcher than Ian Seymour, but Ian Seymour might have a chance to be more of a six-inning guy than Shane McClain and has been so far this season. I don't know that I even agree Shane McClanhan's a better pitcher than Ian Seymour. I mean, it depends what you mean by pitcher. he was a better talent than Seymour, clearly.

I don't know that with the diminished velocity he has, he's a better pitcher than Seymour. Because I think Seymour is a, like Quattara said, excellent pitcher, despite not having that raw stuff. And I think this is the warning shot. I think now that he's established, or at least getting established, appears he is established now with this start.

I think we're going to see him produce closer to he did in the minors, again was awesome. Yeah, and just last year, you mentioned he did make five starts in those starts 316 ERA 105 whip and over a strike operating 10.9 K per 9 in those five starts last year. Well more than a strike up earning. Yeah, I liked him a lot this offseason. I was pretty bummed that they did not start him in the rotation, but now they're starting to transition him over.

And they've just, they've just done really good work with that in previous years, too, with all the, you know, Drew Rasterson was a release. lever. They're doing it now with Griffin Jacks. He's looked really good, too. So I'm excited. He's 14% rostered Ian Seymour. He is RP eligible for those in Head-Ded Points Leagues. What do we do with this? Is he just add him in all points leagues, add him in deeper category leagues for now? What do you think? I think he's probably the most exciting ads since trying to think. Gage Jump. I mean, Gage Jump's still out there in some leagues, especially platforms other than CPS. And look, Seymour

behind gauge jump, but it's been kind of a dry spell on the waiver wire for pitchers recently with the exception of jump. Who was the Red Sucks guy? We talked about. Jake Bennett, I think Seymour is much more likely to be impactful than Jake Bennett,

even though there are some signs I like there with Bennett. What about someone like Sean Burke who's popped up recently and looked good, velocity being up? Yeah, I mean, I don't trust Burke's success so much. I understand why he might be a higher priority off the waiver wire than Seymour right now.

He has a good two-star week coming up too. But if we're starting over and we're not looking at matchups and we're just kind of predicting they have the same job security, all of that, I would like Seymour more. So I would say in terms of how rostered he needs to be, it's about on. equal footing with Burke. All right, Chris, let's go over to you. Again, there were a lot of interesting pitching performance here. Tatsui Mai double-digit strikeouts in two straight. What are we thinking here?

I am inclined to believe that this is for real. Now, not, he's not going to strike out 10 matters every time out, but I thought Tetsu Yemi was going to be pretty good this season. And then he got to the start of the season, was just absolutely awful. But I think we have a pretty good explanation for why. He just wasn't comfortable in, you know, playing in the majors, living in a new country, all that stuff. Like, that's a perfectly reasonable explanation for why a guy would get off to a bad start. And he looks a lot more comfortable lately. You know, the month of June, for the most part,

has been very good. There was one disaster start in there where he didn't get out of the first inning. That needs to be kept in mind. But he's looked a lot more comfortable the past few starts, you know, the past five or six, let's say, he's during a lot more strikes. What's tough is this is not a case where he's dramatically changed up his profile. And that we've talked a lot about lately how that is, it's easier to buy into on a, in on a pitcher breaking out when they've changed something. Throwing harder, throwing different pitches. That is always going to be easier than just, well, he's just pitching better because, well,

who's to say he's going to continue pitching better. But in Imai's case, we do have that comfort level. You know, it's literally a different baseball that they're throwing in Japan versus the United States. It's different routines. He talked about, you know, he wasn't used to when guys eat before the game in America. It's a completely new environment. Everything is new for him. So I am inclined to believe that.

this is more indicative of who Tetsu Yemi is than what we saw early on, especially because he's such a weird pitcher than I think just getting to competent, like competency plus weird could be really good for him. And that was kind of my thought process on him coming into the season. So there's a little confirmation bias here, right? I believe Tetsu Yomai was going to be good now that he's looking good. I'm inclined to believe it. But I think we have a good explanation for why.

he's starting to figure it out. That slider is just weird. Like, you look at the arsenal and you say, well, it's four-seamer slider. Basically, that's it. 96% of his pitches today were four-semer slider. He's a very different type of pitcher, but it's giving me a little bit of Justin Steele vibes where, yes, Justin Steele was also basically a two-pitch pitcher. But within those two pitches, there were kind of four or five different pitches, right?

He had the slider, but he would occasionally just throw it like a cutter. He would occasionally throw it like a sweeper. He had the four seamer that he would cut occasionally. Depending on who he's facing, what part of the strike zone he was throwing it in, those pitches could look different. And IMA, it's mostly just the slider, but the slider is really weird. Some of the time it looks like a kind of like a traditional gyro slider. Sometimes it looks like a splitter or a change up.

or I guess a screwball if you want to go that direction because that pitch moves so much to the arm's side that it's been really effective against both righties and lefties in a way that you don't necessarily expect a slider to do. It's better against righties, but it's doing the job against lefties. And so it's a two-pitch pitcher. I'm not sure if the fastball's great,

but if he commands it well, I think it'll be okay. But that slider effectively works the way multiple pitches and other pitchers' arsenals do. So I do think this can work for him. I'm not saying Tatsu Yima is just a superstar forever now, but I'm inclined to buy into him showing that he's figuring it out. Well, for what it's worth, he did point to a couple of things. He thinks he's improved upon.

And, you know, it seems like he's talking about tunneling, which can be a little harder to quantify. but he talked about how he's done a better job of making his slider look like a fastball. He also says he's had to learn to make a rising fastball. His fastball was never considered that much of a weapon on its own, so maybe that's something Houston's been working with him on. But, I mean, for all that fancy analysis, it really doesn't have to be any more complicated than he has 21 strikeouts to one walk over his last two starts.

as the most, the biggest pitcher to come out of the international market this season. And now with the last two starts, he's been that dominant. So, you know, I said we've been going through a dry spell here at starting pitcher. I talked about how Ian Seymour was a good pickup. Ami is an even better pickup. He's only 46% rostered right now. I mean, to me, he seems like a must coming off these two starts. Yeah, look, you guys have talked a lot about him.

My biggest question remains like, is there enough? That slider is truly a unique weapon as you talked about, Chris. I just don't know if there's enough else, right? Like, maybe he doesn't need anything else. Like if that pitch is just that dominant. But I do worry about the fastball, especially like the command of the fastball. But you mentioned it. Last two starts, 12 innings, three runs, 21 strikeouts to just one walk here for EMI.

Scott, you answered the question. Imai overseen more. Chris, would you go that way as well? Yes. Yeah. If I throw Jake Bennett and Sean Burke in that mix, Tatsu, I'mai still at the top? Yeah.

Jake Bennett and Sean Burke. I think Burke versus EMI is close, but I'm fine with going EMI over Burke. All right, before we hit our first break, reminder that the week 15 previews, Scott's articles, will be up on Friday. So you can check out sleeper hitters, two-star pitchers,

and our FBT Express episode on Saturday, previewing week 15, We'll be out around 8 a.m. Eastern Time, so be on the lookout for that, both on YouTube and in your audio podcast feeds. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today, and we have prospect news.

The Guardians are promoting Cooper Ingle on Friday, 24-year-old catcher prospect, likely to play some outfield, some DH with the Guardians. 51 games at AAA this season, 284 batting average 416 on base, 12 homers, 41 RBI, 967 OPS, really good eye at the plate, 19% walk rate. He is 6% rostered. Scott, what are your thoughts here on Cooper Engel?

Feels like a must add in two catcher leagues. Where would just slot him into your catcher rankings as of now? He'd probably be around 20th. So I'd say he has a ways to go to matter. And one, catcher leagues to be worth picking up there. and we don't know how much he's going to play yet, so that factors into it. If he's an everyday player and he hits well enough

that he justifies being an everyday player, then that's a guy who can move way up at the catcher rankings. Love the plate discipline for Cooper Engel. He has a line drive stroke that I think is going to help the batting average play up. Doesn't have a lot of raw power. The hardest, Hit ball we have data on in his minor league career, which really just his time at AAA between this year and last 107.2. So, you know, the average exit velocity, it was 89.3 this year. That's not bad. But there isn't like that high end power that makes me trust Cooper Ingalls going to be a reliable source of home runs. He does elevate well to his pull side. So that helps.

You know, this could go to Luke Keishel route where even though he was doing that well in the minors may not necessarily do it well in the majors. And then is he impactful enough with the bat to be that useful? I mean, he doesn't steal bases like Keishel does. But he is a catcher. At least catcher eligible Cooper Ingalls. So I think he's interesting. I don't think he's must add outside of two catcher leagues. So I threw him at 23 in my catcher rankings.

That's just behind Kyle Teal, Alejo. Kirk, Yiner Diaz, Andy Rodriguez. Andy Rodriguez is really close, but I like what he's doing. And then I have Engel just ahead of Dalton rushing, J.C. Real Muto, Victor Karatini. Does that sound like the right area? Why do you have

Karatini so high still? He actually has been really good over the past months? Yeah, he's been better. Oh, has he? He's got a really, like, OPS over 800 in June, so. Okay. He's picked things up. I buried him long ago. But maybe I need to look at that again. Yeah, I mean, I would, I think, I might put some of those catchers ahead of angle, some of them behind.

You know, Dalton rushing is a little difficult to rank because it's, his usefulness is dependent on Will Smith's timeline. So how much do you value the short term? I understand he hasn't been hot or anything, but I think rushing is good. Yeah, that's that's about right for Cooper Engel, I'd say. All right, Juan Soto returned to the lineup Thursday as the DeLissel, He missed both games Wednesday with left side back tightness. Francisco Lindor was out of the lineup after returning on Wednesday. Reminder that they hate each other.

Apparently, that was a conspiracy theory that was thrown our way. Bobby Wood Jr. is on track to return to the lineup on Friday after missing six straight games with that grade one MCL sprain in his right knee. So if you do play in lineups in leagues where you could change your lineup on Friday, go ahead and get Bobby Whit Jr. back. in there, assuming he's in the lineup. Isn't that like such a self-sabot?

I'm thinking of the Soto-Lindor thing. Like, it's such a self-sabotage Mets fan take. Like, we got the best free, one of the best free agent hitters ever, but here's why it's not actually going to work out. Here's why it's actually a bad thing.

It's because a bunch of Mets fans are completely irrational by Francisco Lendor and think he's bad. That's what, it has nothing to do with Juan Soto. They think it's Francisco Indoor's fault. Yeah. I was just going to say, if you guys were Mets fans, you would probably come up with self-sabotaging theories as well.

Just saying. I don't know. I'm a pretty easy go. I'm a pretty chill fan, all things. It's pretty easy to be chill when you're sitting at a top, you know, the NLEs, Scott. I'm just like, you know, the Mets had expectations coming into the season. And it's been the train wreck of all train wrecks.

So I kind of understand why Mets fans are just, like trying to come up with anything because. But they should be happy. They have both Soto and Lendor. Let's be honest. And now they're healthy-ish. Hopefully they're both healthy and in the lineup here on Friday. Ben Brown,

apparently not healthy, has been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his neck and will have limited activity for the next month. So obviously he was amazing, big breakout this season, but it sounds like he's going to miss a decent amount of time here. Again, that is Ben Brown. Yeah,

And I saw, let me make sure, yeah, Megan Montemurro, who covers the Cubs for the Chicago Tribune, said it's similar to what he experienced in June 2024. That ended his season that time. Now, there were several setbacks along the way, but that's pretty concerning. Yeah. I was holding out hope that it wouldn't be this bad, but yeah. Look, he may not have the same setbacks, but it's, I think it's worth noting. He's going to miss at least one month and he's going to need some time to ramp up after that too.

So maybe it's like, I don't know, early to mid-August at best here for Ben Brown. Zach Giloff was placed in the aisle with a laceration and contusion that he suffered on his hand when it got stepped on the other day. Spencer Horwitz was placed in the aisle with a left hamstring strain. Jared Jones is scheduled to make his next start Saturday against the red. He left early on Sunday after taking a comebacker off of his pitching elbow. If you guys played in a daily lineup league, would you use Jared Jones this weekend against the Reds?

I don't think he's good enough to really be using him anyway, I think. Not yet. Look, I think he's got a lot of potential, but he's going five innings every time in the best case scenario. So I just, I think Jared Jones is strictly a stash on your bench, guy. If you, if you're just starting everyone, then yes, start him. But like, I think the best case scenario is five good innings. Yeah. That's what I've learned about again, playing, I bring this league up a lot. That's how it's Champions League, Daily lineup league, I pretty much to start anybody.

Like any pitcher that's on my team, unless there's like the ratios are close and I really need to like, you know, be judicious about who I use. If I'm just chasing like wins or strikeouts, I'm pretty much just throwing anybody out there. Marcus Semyon was placed... How's that worked for you? Marcus Semyon was placed in the aisle of the left hip place your strain. Yeah, Stemian's on the aisle.

It has not gone very well. Ronnie Maricio was recalled by the Mets. He was hitting pretty well in the minors, 3-11, six homers, seven steals, 939 OPS, and hitting the ball really hard. Any... It's probably like NL only leagues, but like, any deep league interest in Ronnie Maricio?

We've done this kind of thing multiple times with him. Maybe. Look, he's a talented player. The minor league numbers are really good. But, yeah, we just haven't seen that the major league level. And he hasn't really, are they going to give him an opportunity this time? Maybe. That's a big part of it.

Yeah. I did see him take a couple swings here on Thursday. So, yeah, I think he was in the lineup for Lindor who was out. Jacob Wilson was out of the lineup with his left shoulder banged up. He hurt that on a play at home plate on Wednesday. It's also the same shoulder that he dislocated earlier this season. So hopefully Jacob Blisson will be all right. The debacks transferred Ryan Nelson to the 60-day IL.

He is out with that flexor strain in his right elbow. The Marlins option Connor Norby to AAA after a very rough month of June. And Max Kepler was scheduled to make his debacks debut here on Thursday. They signed him after an 80 game suspension for PEDs. Last year in 127 games, he hit 216, 18 homers. 691 OPS. Don't think we have much interest in Max Kepler, do we?

No. All right. Let's fire up the Worryometer one day late. We did lots of names yesterday, but Kevin Gosman, man. We've got to talk about this. Two terrible starts in a row

rocked by the Rangers here. Six innings, ten hits, six runs allowed, three homers allowed in this one. His splitter did have seven whiffs, but everything else. else got clobbered. His fastball and slider just got hit really hard. 13 hard hits in this one. That's six plus earned runs in back-to-back starts. Chris, where is Kevin Gosman on the Worryometer? Roughly the same place he always is. I don't know. I think this is just what happens with Kevin

Gosman. And eventually, it will stop happening and he'll just be bad. You know, we'll be all have to retire from professional baseball at some point, but I don't think that's happening yet. You look back at last year, and on June 26th, he had a, well, on June 25th, let's say, he had a 460 for the season. On June 26th, he had an eight-inning shutout, so it was much better on that day, but at this same point last year, he was worse. So I don't. don't really think there's anything to look at with Kevin Gosman. I think it's just, you know, when we had Nick Pollock on earlier this offseason, he talked about, um, splitter guys are just kind of frustrating. The guys who rely on their splitters so much. If you just, I remember him talking

about like the way you have to hold the ball when you throw a splitter. It's just really hard to throw that consistently where you want it to go. Most splitter pitchers rely on chase. Sometimes you're just not going to have the feel for it and you're going to get knocked around because he doesn't really have much else. You know, this slider's not very good. His fastball's okay. It really all kind of depends on the splitter. And I think this is just a stretch that Kevin Gosman goes through more or less every season. If you want to sit him, sit him. If you don't trust him right now, don't trust him. I don't, I think the mistake would be to drop Kevin Gosman or to sell low on him and think that he's just suddenly broken. I don't think that at all. And it just two starts.

ago he had a 341 ERA. So, if you find concrete explanations reassuring, which I do, if you like knowing that, okay, this guy might have a beat on what's wrong with him, Kevin Gossman did say this after the game. I need to take a look at my delivery and figure out my land leg. I feel like it's kind of buckling right now. That allows me to pitch up in the zone. I think what he's saying is when it's not.

buckling it allows him to to pitch up in the zone but you get the idea like he thinks there's something there mechanically that he needs to look at which is often the case when pitchers struggle and i mean gossman's been through the ringer i think he knows how to pull out of this i find it reassuring in part because i don't see a lot going on there and the data that would concern me so it might just be a small little mechanical thing like he's talking about there which you know you might Bench him next time out. Bench him until you see him looking like himself again. But beyond that, I don't think you need to react to this too much.

Completely agree. Definitely do not drop him. Do not sell him low. Chris, you pointed this out. Kevin Galsman had six or more earned runs in three different starts last year. All three of those starts happened by June 20th. And then from that point forward, obviously, he was much better. And still finish the season with a 359 ERA.

Right now, it's up to 436. he just kind of goes through spells like this. And I think the year before he was really bad early on and then was great later or the opposite. It's been a lot of, there's a lot of Framber Valdez there. And I think that's kind of similar explanations.

Valdez, it's the big curveball, but those are tough pitches to throw consistently, a 73 mile an hour curveball or whatever it is for, for Valdez. And in Gosman's case, it's the splitter. They're just tough pitches to throw consistently. Yeah. He does get the Mets next week, Kevin Gosman.

They are 29th in Wobah against Rides, but now a lineup that has Lindor and Juan Soto in it together, hopefully. So I don't know. If you guys just had to make a snap decision, I guess, right now, you just bench Kevin Gosman next week. I'd probably. I'd lean. What did you say, Chris?

Sorry. I'd start him. You would start him. Okay. Yeah, but I try to avoid starting him. It may be in some leagues that, well. my best bet is to hope he, this is the start. He comes around, but I try to avoid it.

All right. Let's do some fill in the blank rankings edition. And I've got six different players here to talk about, two pitchers and four hitters. Bryce Miller took a tough loss here at the Pirates, but man, strikeout stuff was dominant. Five and two thirds, three runs, two homers loud, 11 strikeouts to zero walks. He had 19 whiffs on 90 pitches here. and 54 strikeouts to five walks on the season. He's been really good. Scott, anything to add on this start from Bryce Miller

and fill in the blank, top blank starting pitch of the rest of season. I mean, look, we were talking before the show, and Chris was saying he felt like the olive garden breadstick was either Tatsuya I'mai or Bryce Miller. And I was like, I don't know, Bryce Miller, it just kind of feels like this is who he is now. This is a dog bites man story. Yeah.

I will note that one of the things we were raving about with Bryce Miller is just him really leaning into the fastball again, which seemed like a proper course of action for him throwing at 47% of the time. He mixed in those secondaries more in this one. Only 30% usage of the fastball was still dominant. So I'm kind of just like, whatever. And obviously, just because he did that, this start doesn't mean he won't throw 47% fast balls next time. I think there's plenty of reason to be excited here

and nothing about this start diminishes my excitement. What did you ask? Like, there was a... Top blank starting pitcher of rest of the season. So I just updated that yesterday. And I put him... I know I moved him pretty high. I moved Bryce Miller 28th.

If you wanted to say 24th, I wouldn't argue it too much. Yeah, I was going to say 25th. All right. So some way, somehow, top 30 starting pitch of rest of season for Bryce Miller. I haven't met SP 31. I kind of wanted to put them higher. So maybe I should just do that.

I give you permission. Thank you, sir. Let's talk about Wyatt Langford. Another one. One for five, what is eighth home run and updated numbers since returning 299, seven homers, two steals, 980 OPS. That's all in 19 games since coming back.

Chris, White Lankford, top blank outfield the rest of season. 30? I moved 20 today. 25. Yeah, I mean, look, the gap between like 18 and 35 is pretty slim. Yeah, I haven't topped 24 or 21st. So, yeah, top 24. I was just waiting for the page to load to see where I have them rank.

Yeah, I have 20 seconds. So I think 24 is what I like the exit velocity has improved now. during the stretch. It wasn't looking that way at first. It's still giving him the benefit of the doubt, to be clear. But I kind of think given how many outfielders are old and boring or old and disappointing or middle-aged in baseball terms and either one of those, I think just deferring to the young guy who's disappointing might just be the move

because there is a lot of upside for Wyatt Langford. We've seen stretches each of his first two seasons where he's been really, really good. And it's just hoping he can, one, stay healthy, which has been a problem and was a problem already this season. And two, cut out the inconsistency. But, you know, if you're talking, who would I rather have Wyatt Langford or Taylor Ward or Jaron or Ian Hap?

I'll take Wyatt Langford over those guys, just because the other guys are known quantities. And they're not great. They're fine. they're not terrible, but Langford has a fairly high floor based on his first two seasons, and I still think there's a high ceiling there. I guess one thing we do have to bake into his floor is that he has struggled to stay healthy, so hopefully he could do that now, but has been really, really good since returning. Let's talk about Cosima Okamoto, who also hit another one, his 18th home run of the season.

He has three home runs in his past five games, and he is having himself a big old June, 316, six homers, 989 OPS, still has a 30% strikeout rate in the month. But reminder, he is on pace for 35 homers and 101 RBI. Scott, top blank third basement rest of season. I thought about top 12. I thought about getting them back inside the top 12. Yeah, this is a really annoying question to ask me, Frank, because I think this was the player I most struggled to rank in my last update.

That means it's a question. I still only have him 16th, but I am giving the benefit of the doubt to a lot of underachieving for third baseman. And there are plenty of them. I've moved Austin Riley down to 13th. He has begun to sink rapidly in my rankings, but he's still 13th. I have Alex Bregman, 14th. I have Esak Peridde's 15th. And I'm not even sure Perides is behind pace that much.

He's turning it around in June 2. Yeah. Michael Garcia I got him 12th still So like there's five third baseman In front of Okamoto Where it's just like I'm not quite ready To say these guys can't bounce back

And then you know If I were to say that then yes Okamoto rises to 12th So it's it sounds too low 16th But that's that's the justification more It's more about those five ahead of him I mean, look, there are clear limitations for Okamoto if he's going to strike out this much.

But it's funny, like he's doing kind of what we were worried or I don't know if worried's the right word, but he looks more like Munatakamurakami than I think we were thinking coming in. We thought there was going to be a clear separation between those two with the strikeouts and to some degree the power. Everybody thought Okamoto was definitely going to hit for contact at least. And yeah, as it turns out, no, he's been an all or nothing power hitter. I think you can hedge a little bit with this one as well.

I think in points leagues, I probably, I still have them like 14th. In Roto, I actually moved him up to 12. And I think there's an argument for him to be as high as 10 in Roto, just because the power has been so good for him. But yeah, he, you know, first couple months, a little bit rocky, but big, big June here for Kazama Okamoto. Let's take a quick break when we were trying to have three other players to ask about where are they in the rankings.

We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today, and we are doing some fill in the blank rankings edition. And next up, we have Connolly Early, who had a great outing here against the Yankees, six innings of two-run ball, nine strikeouts to one walk, 17 whiffs on 98 pitches. He worked those breaking pitches in more,

and they were awesome. That sweeper in particular, if we could just get more of that pitch, I think that would be pretty nice here. I mean, we may have figured out what's been plaguing Connolly Early all season is like he doubled the usage of the slider and the sweeper, basically doubled it to about what it was last year. And I've been wondering this all along if, okay, the strength of Connolly Early is that he has the six pitch arsenal, someone who's very young, you know, the raw stuff isn't that impressive. if no one pitch is that amazing, but they're all good enough that with the right mix,

he can dominate. And maybe he just wasn't landing on the right mix this year. Again, and this start, it looked closer to last year's mix when he was dominant. And he dominated. So I don't know. It's a sample of one,

but it's encouraging. Yeah. The velocity was back up in this too. Everything was up like one to one and a half miles per hour. So we'll see if he can maintain that. WIS looked really good. good in his last start, too, he had a 13% swinging strike rate in that one. So we're starting to get some whiffs here.

Chris, top blank starting pitcher rest of season here on Connolly early. Yeah, so one thing I wanted to check, because when you start mentioning a lefty throwing their sweeper more, the first flag that goes up is, was he facing more lefties? And that's, yes. Opposing lineups have been very righty-heavy against Connolly early this season. 75% of the pitches he has thrown this season have been, righties. Tonight it was about 58% thrown to righties. So he faced a lot more lefties and there you go. He threw 25% sweepers. That's a pitch that he almost never throws to righties.

So I think that does explain at least some of why he threw the sweeper more in this one at least. I think he's a top 55 starting pitcher that felt low. But, But I've had some other names just moving ahead of him. I haven't down to 68 now. Yeah. So if anything, it's high. Okay. I mean, look, I'm encouraged by this start.

Maybe I move them up a little after this start. There just been other names. It is only one start. Recently, like the A's guys with T.T. Ginn and Gage jump. Those guys have jumped ahead of him. Landon Roup has looked better over his last two starts. His underlying numbers remain good. Someone like Roki Sasaki is like,

Sasaki and Early, you know, it's, I think they're, they both have upside. They're both young guys, so they should be in a similar range of the rankings. But yeah, look, I was worried for a lot of the season, the K-minus Walk stuff for early, didn't look very good. But now if the strikeouts are starting to come, you know, that that could be a reason to bump him back up the rankings here. I will point out next week, he gets the Nationals, so you probably don't want to start Connolly early.

That's tough. Well, he got the Yankees this week. I was just look, because I acquired Connolly Early in the podcast for the People League. That's a 16 teamer. I acquired him over the weekend. Did not put him in my lineup for this week. Left them out. Didn't get the start. I started Ben Brown though with the Red Cross next to his name. All right. I'll just edit that one out of the podcast.

People don't have to know about that one, Scott. No, no, no, no, no. You didn't have a red cross at the start of the week. Yeah, you didn't know. That wasn't a lack of attention on my part. He didn't go on the aisle until Wednesday, right? Like completely unexpectedly? Yeah, something like Tuesday. It was unexpected. Let's talk about Brandon Marsh, another huge game,

two for four with a sock in the shoe, his 12th homer, his eighth stolen base. He had two runs, three RBI, just had a huge four game series against the Nationals. Their pitching is pretty bad. Nine hits, three homers,

six runs, six RBI, a steal. He's having a monster June here. He's had a really, really good season all around. He entered Thursday as the 12th outfielder in Roto, the 23rd outfielder in total head to head points.

Published my rankings earlier, someone comments like, you know, I think Brandon Marsh should be higher. And I kind of think maybe he should be higher too. I moved him up quite a bit with this latest update. The strikeout rate has been creeping up for what it's worth. But a lot of it is just so many other outfielders have disqualified themselves,

I feel like. And Marsh is hanging in there. So I got them up to 43rd now. How did Where did you? I was a I was I haven't at 47 I was even more aggressive

Okay Surprised me How I for 33rd And I feel like you've spoken You've been the harshest toward Marsh That's the tough thing This is just kind of where I'm at on outfield Yeah

Because I don't really Like him very much Part of it is just like You've got like a A bunch of dudes Who I just don't know where to rank because they're hurt, you know, like Mike Trout and Aaron Judge and Ronald Cunier all higher than that, but then you've got like, Brent Rooker, I think will be good when he's back,

and Roman Anthony and Chase the Lodder and O'Neill Cruz should all be, you know, back in the next three or four weeks, I think. So I mean, I don't know how good DeLotter is at this point. Sure, that's fair. But the thing with Brandon Marsh is he's having this huge season. Yes, for sure. That's true. His underlying numbers look. identical. Actually, his walk rate is half of what it's been, but everything else basically looks like it's looked the past couple of seasons. He's a 327 ex-Woba in 2024, 330, 328. Strikeout rate, this slightly better this season, but not a huge amount. I just, I kind of think he's running hot. And so, you know, 33rd and Roto, I think he's in the four, four.

45 range in points. And even that might be too high in points because he's just not a great points player. But, you know, in Roto, you're getting some speed. You're getting some homers from him. He has eight steals, 12 homers. He's already bested last year in both regards. So I'm okay with viewing him as a hot hand play. It's not someone, I think, is a long-term starter, certainly in a points league.

And even in Roto, I think he's eventually more like a four or five outfielder. So again, I got him up around my 45th ranked outfielder. This is Brandon Marsh that we're talking about. But I see an argument for him being as high as like 35. So I can make that move. I lower Jaron Durant a lot because like, I don't know. He's been really, really abysmal for two of three months this season. And so that's kind of like the cutoff point for me.

I think I moved him down to 35. I think Brandon Marsh could probably just be right ahead of him. And one stat just to highlight what you were saying, Chris, about Brandon Marsh just being hot. all season. His launch angle sweet spots percentage is 46%. That is currently a career high. That feels like something that would correlate with just being hot, right? Like you're just hitting the ball optimally for a large majority of the season. Now, if he keeps that up, then he's just very clearly going to have a career year. But it feels like something that kind of runs

hot and cold. So yeah. And there's just not a lot else going on in the profile that suggests that he's truly taken a big step forward. Well, the strikeout rate's been the main one. But like, I said, that's been creeping up. Yeah, that's basically where it was in June. Yeah, it was basically where it is where it was last year now overall. Last thing I wanted to mention here is Carter Jensen, who continues to hit well. He actually spoiled that combined no hitter in the ninth inning, one for four with his 11th homer last 16 games, 344, four homers in OPS over 1,000.

Strikeout rate only 15% during that span. That's awesome to see for Carter Jensen. He's hitting the ball really hard as well. Scott, top blank catcher rest of season, Carter Jensen. I moved him way down earlier this month, finally, and then I had to move him way back up. So I have him 15th, top 15 catcher. Yeah, I think I have him right in that same range.

Yep, I have right at 15th, Frank. I'm wondering who you have ahead of, you have Francisco Alvarez ahead of him, no. I do. I have Alvarez 16th. Okay. Gabriel Moreno? Yes, I have Moreno ahead. Do you stop Sal ahead of him?

Salvador Perez? No. I do have Ryan Jeffers. Ryan Jeffers? Liam Hicks? I do have Liam Hicks ahead. Okay. I moved him down just because of the injury.

Sure. I have four IL guys ahead of him. Okay. Not Tiel. So Ruchman? Rushman, Hicks, Smith, and Jeffers. Okay. I think I've just been more aggressive about moving the injured guys down below.

Yeah. Because I have Jensen. 11th, but it's basically him, Moreno, Francisco Alvarez, I think are very, very close because Alvarez is having an awesome June himself. Yeah. All right, let's wrap up here. I got some other waiver wire names here from Thursday's action. And I'll start on the pitcher side. I just wanted to highlight Troy Melton, the velocity of big time in this start for him.

Six innings, one run, a season high, six strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 88 pitches. And this is what we were waiting to see, the strikeouts and the swinging strikes kind of backing that up. He has a lot of tour and runs or fewer in five of six starts. 59% rostered. He's RP eligible for those who play in a points league. Thoughts. By far the most, by far the most impressive start of his season, I thought.

I know he's had better statistical starts. He had the one where he went eight innings. He had the one where he went seven. But in terms of the bat missing, in terms of the quality of the stuff that he had, I think this is the best Troy Mountain has looked. And the closest he has come to looking like he deserves the results he's been getting so far.

Because he entered this start with a 15% strikeout rate, which is just totally untenable. You cannot be a great major league pitcher with a 15% strikeout rate. So this is the velocity he had last year when he was starting late in the season. In the minors, the last two years, his swinging strike rate has been 15%. He had strikeout rate, swinging strike. So like, we knew it was in there because he had been running,

you know, K per 9 and the minders is like 12 and he just wasn't showing in the majors. Now he needed this big jump in velocity up 1.6 on the fastball, 2.7 on the cutter, 3.1 on the slider. A big increase to get there.

And I don't know if that's something he could replicate start after start. But he did say he changed something mechanically prior to this start, tried to be more upright on the mound. because he had found himself leaning back a little bit. So between him and Gosman and maybe even am I to a degree,

like we're getting a lot of mechanics talk today. And mechanics is kind of like the... It's a carburetor. ...hadden variable. What did you say? Don't worry about it. Okay. You made a card.

It made Frank laugh. That's all I wanted. Yeah. I mean, I'd love to make you laugh, Scott, one day. One of these days you'll get there. I'm a tough laugh. So Troy Melton, where does he rank among all the names that we've talked about today? Amai and...

I feel bad we're getting to him at 55 minutes because he could have been my player of the night, you know? I didn't expect fill in the blank to take that long. Your oddball segments, you never expect them to take that long. I always appreciate your faith in us to move. It's always the days where it's like, oh, there was eight games on the schedule, and then we just take like 20 minutes on some. Well, this was a legitimately interesting day of baseball, okay? No, it was.

It was honestly the most interesting Thursday ever. Maybe of the series, yeah. I ran, I looked back at all the Thursdays in history and determined this was the most interesting ever. Melton, Melton's an exciting pickup, too. How rostered is he? He's probably more than? 59. 59, yeah.

still available in a lot of leagues. Man, who's he pitching against? Texas next week? At the Yankees. Okay. But yeah, no, he needs to be picked up too. Probably ahead of Seymour, even. I think so too, yeah.

I think he's like top 70-ish pitcher, starting pitcher. So that should be roster. I had of Jake Bennett and Sean Burke as well. I'd go ahead of Bennett, probably not Burke. I think ahead of Burke. All right again, that's Troy Milton. We were just talking about some names you might want to use next week. Bubba Chandler, he hasn't really had that dominant start, but he's looked better.

As of late, last four starts, 282 ERA 103 whip, 18 strikeouts to eight box over 22 and a third innings. And he is at the Phillies and at the nationals next week. So I don't know about the matchups, but he's looked better. Landon Root, a quality start against the athletic, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 108 pitches. and back-to-back quality starts after a rough stretch for him. He is at the D-backs next week.

They have struggled against right-handed pitchers. Cade Cavali, a strong outing against the Phillies, six innings, two-run, seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 97 pitches. And did struggle his three starts before this one. He's at the Red Sox next week. Also looks like a good matchup on paper. So how would you guys rank these three

if you're just talking about using them for next week? Chandler, Rup, Kate Cavali, and any of these... I've already ranked those three. Yep. For my Sleeper Pictures article. Yeah, they're all three in it. Well, hit me, baby, one more time.

What do we got? Well, first time. I ranked them Chandler, then Rup, then Cavali. That is also the way I would do it, but man, starting Baba Chandler and a Roto League, would give me, agita.

I would not feel great about the possibility of that lingering on my schedule the whole year. I did just want to point out like landing a Rup at 70% rostered. Scott, you've been pretty steadfast with this that like the underlying numbers have remained pretty good for Rup.

So if he was kind of dropped in your league after that tough stretch, I totally would make it a priority to get Lander Rup back on a roster. Right around 80. percentile for contact quality,

K-rate and ground ball rate, 328 XERA, 3-0-O-FIP. All right. Would you rank him ahead of all the names we talked about today? I'mai and Seymour and what do we just talk about?

Troy Melton. Melton and Burke and Bennett and there's actually some pretty interesting pitchers right now. It's always waves. You know, this is where it gets tough because like if you're chasing upside, Ami has the most. And Melton probably has the second most.

I think Rup is the safest bet to be like just a useful part of your team all season long. So it kind of depends what you're looking for. I think if I'm ranking these guys rest of season and not so much thinking waiver priority, I put Rup number one. All right. I do have some waiver hitters. we can quickly run through. Jose Caballero had a big game,

two for four with a sock in his shoe, his eighth homer, his 18th stolen base. He has started 20 of the past 22 games. And last year, he had, where I wrote this down somewhere, I think,

he had five home runs at 126 games. He already has eight homers in 68 games this year. 74% rostered. Would you guys put Caboero at the top of the, just like, eligible everywhere, guys. So, Willie Castro,

Brooks Lee, Ernie Clement, Ezekiel Duran. It's Caballero at the top of that list. Yeah. And my rankings, he is.

I do like Castro for next week. Yeah. Because they finally get the full week of home games. Seven home games for the Rockies, baby. That's what I was going to say is, yes,

in theory, but if I had to drop Caballaro to add Willie Castro next week, I think I'd do it. And even like 74% rostered, that kind of feels way too high for Jose Cabriero just because like, okay, he has eight homers. If he's a 16 homer guy like he's on pace for,

that's great. You know, obviously, I think he'd be worth, Ross. That is not reflected in the underlying. Yeah, the underlying numbers do not buy it at all. His track record does not buy it at all. I don't really think there's any reason to think Jose Cabiero is anything more than a five or six homer guy

the rest of the way, probably. I think it needs to be rostered in every single categories league. That's how, like, you know, points league, does he? Probably not. But any type of head to head categories, any type of roto, Kabayero needs to be rostered in those. Some names at first base, Curtis Mead, home run again. It was his third home run in the last four games.

And pretty even splits. I just, again, it's like such a tough position at first base. He has third base eligible as well. And then Jake Berger, let's just put all the corner infield guys together. I have Mead, Jake Burger last 16 games. He's sitting 370 with four homers. We spoke about this earlier, like before the podcast.

He's on pace for 28 homers and 96 RBI. It's just really quiet for Jake. It doesn't matter. And he's my 40th ranked first base man. First base is so loaded, man. And I look at the names ahead of him and I'm like, yeah, yeah, he probably deserves to be for 40th. The most likely to move behind him,

Vinnie P. just because he's injured. Salvador Perez just because you're giving up on him completely. Royce Lewis because you're not at all hopeful that he's figured something out. I'm pretty hopeful. Me too. Like I'm saying that I'm kind of a steel manning. Steel manning. Steel manning.

Steal Manning. Playing devil's advocate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to mention Caleb Durbin as well. He stayed hot. He had a sixth home run.

in a revenge game against the Yankees. Last 24, 329, 5 homers, 16 RBI, 3 steals. How would you just rank these three in terms of interest level if you need a corner infielder? Curtis Meade, Jake Berger, Caleb Durbin. Probably Meade, I guess Durbin ahead of Berger. This Durbin stretch feels really fake to me, though. And mostly it's because he's definitely not a 900 OPS bat.

he might be a 700 OPS bat. And so if he's not really running, it's hard for me to actually get excited about Caleb Durbin, even as a hot handplay, just because I think he needs to be a 30 steel guy to really matter because I do think the bat is extremely weak with Caleb Durbin. So, yeah, he's been hot lately. I guess if you want to add him for a hot hand play,

but I do like the Red Sox met him next week. And so I, I, I, as of now, I have Durbin as a sleeper hitter for next week. That's fine. But, yeah, if we're saying who ranks high rest of season, Durbin's. I agree Durbin's clearly the lowest. I rank me to head of Berger. The weirdest part of Caleb Durbin's season is that he's been awful at home in Fenway.

And I just thought his swing would work so perfectly on Fenway Park. And it has not. Not so far. Maybe you can turn that around. but this home run was in Fenway, so, you know, good on that. That was one that I thought the same thing, and then I looked at the expected home runs by ballpark, and it was awful at Fenway, which didn't make sense, but it was, he was, he had five expected home runs at Fenway last year.

I just thought he, like, you know, I agree. He's a whole fly ball. It doesn't even have to be homers, just like, whatever. Just fly balls, just bang them off the monster and whatever, give me doubles, you know. But it has not been working, yeah. Another outfielder just, I mentioned. mention his name a lot this week. I think big things are coming. The numbers are starting to pick up. Dylan Cruz, three for four with his third stolen base. Last 14 games, he's hitting 286,

three homers, two steals, hitting the ball hard. Underlying numbers are good. 42% rostered. Kind of beat the waiver wire. I think some big games are coming here for Dylan Cruz. Some other leftovers on the hitting side. Contract year, Brandon Loud, two for four with his 19th home run. He is the fourth. second baseman this year in Roto and total head to head points. He has been awesome. Jeremy Payne a two for four with his eighth stone base. Nice to see him running just the other day. He was dealing with a hamstring cramp. So it's good for him.

Dylan Dingler remained hot. He had his 19 home run. Just an insane June. 360.8 home runs, an 1120 OPS. And Bryce Harper, a clutch. Go ahead. Home run in the ninth inning. It was his 18th home run. He has three homers in its past six games. Anything to add on Harper, Dingler. Pena, Raina, Lao. Where do you guys have Dengler ranked? I think eight or nine?

I have him eight, and I've been, do I really want to get him ahead of Cal Raleigh? I kind of do, but... Cow Raleigh's a tough one right now. He's, I mean, he's been so awful this season, but he's never been this bad before. You know, it's kind of like what we've talked about with Kyle Braddish all along,

where it's like, yes, Kyle Raleigh's been really bad, and yes, the underlying numbers suggest that he deserves to be as bad as he has been. this is the first time he's ever been this bad. So I kind of just give him the benefit of the doubt. Not that he'll be as good as he was last year. I haven't ranked seventh now. And you want to give him some time after the injuries. Yeah. I've moved Ivan Herrera ahead of him.

I've moved him below a bunch of guys. I stopped William Contreras ahead of him. That's the one with Dylan Dingler that I could get him up to seven. But it's important to remember that he had really good underlying numbers. He was kind of not that great before June. He was okay. but it was, I think, more like a 760 OPS at the end of May. But he's been like top 10 in ex-woble all season.

Oh, yeah, he's been incredible, like the underlying numbers. And they were last year, too. He underperformed there. So it's tough to know how much of this to buy into. But I wrote about it on, was it yesterday's newsletter the day before, one of those, CBSports.com slash newsletters. But that's how far, how far I can move him up. remains a question for me.

All right, some pitching leftovers. Welcome back to Matthew Boyd, and he kept runs off the board. He was a bit wild here. Four and two-thirds, shutout innings, four walks, four strikeouts,

14 whiffs on 76 pitches. That number is awesome. He is 81% rostered. He's only 20% started. Scott, if you have Matthew Boyd on your roster, do you think you would use him next week against the Cardinals?

Second start back. I think I probably would. I mean, the walks, obviously weren't great in this one. It was the only thing that wasn't good, unless you count the length, but the walks contributed to him going only four innings.

Mr. Tadna Bats has been doing that all year, and like the walk, that's an aberration. He was 2.5 per nine prior to this start, and last year it was 2.1 per nine. I think against the Cardinals, Matthew Boyd's fine. All right, some of their pitching leftovers, Sam Shletler, some bad defense behind him. Five innings, four unearned runs,

nine strikeouts to two walks. Velasi was up. He had 16 whiffs on 92 pitches. Mackenzie Gore, a quality start, seven innings, three runs, five strikeouts at the Blue Jays. Freddie Peralta bounced back against the Cubs. It's the only place he could go after his last start.

Five and two-thirds, innings three unurned runs, five strikeouts to one walk. And not even Christopher Sanchez could solve the nationals against left-hand pitchers. Five innings, five runs, six strikeouts for him.

Chris, anything on Sanchez, Peralta, Gore or Schletter. Gore is a fine ad because he gets to Cleveland next week. Start.

Yeah, start. Is he really like 100% rostered? Yeah, he's over 90% but yeah, he's only 60% started right now. I was going to say,

like, how did I miss him for sleeper pitchers? Okay. I do not think McKenzie Gore needs to be that widely rostered anymore, but 92% roster. You went from saying add him to drop him. Well, yeah, because I saw 60% in the rundown. I was like, oh, 60% rostered.

Yeah, go ahead and add him for Cleveland next week. Start him for Cleveland next week. I don't think McKenzie Gore is a pitcher who needs to be rostered universally. Yeah. All right. Call to the bullpen for the table. Giants. Caleb Killian got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed four runs on a walk and four hits. He took his second blown save and fourth loss. Who gets the next save opportunity for the Giants?

Probably Caleb Killian. Some bad, bad closers by the bay. That is true. Speaking of which, for the athletics with Hogan Harris unavailable, Mason Barnett got the ninth inning, and he tossed a clean inning for his second save. His numbers are actually kind of good. 2% rostered. The A's probably don't have a closer and they never will ever again, but I don't know. You're in a deep enough league.

Mason Barnett, there's a name for you. For the Nationals, Clayton Beater entered with one out and the seventh bases loaded, a two-run lead. He walked one, then he allowed another run on a fielder's choice, tie game. Gus Varland pitched a scoreless eighth. He came back out for the ninth, and he allowed five earned runs on six hits and two homers.

he's been quite bad. The Nationals do not have a closer, and they never will ever again. For the Rangers, Jacob Latz got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a two-run homer, but picked up his 15th save. For the Cubs, Jacob Webb,

got the ninth. He walked one. He kept clean. The Cubs took a one-run lead. Trent Thornton got the 10th, and he closed it out for his first save. And the Red Sox, A Roller-Chapman,

got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed three-base runners, but he did pick up his fifth. 15th save of the year. To stream or not to stream on Friday, we have Andrew Abbott at the Pirates, Trevor Rogers against the Nationals, Joey Cantillo against the Mariners,

Walbert Arania against the Athletics, Michael McGreevy against the Marlins, J.T. Ginn at the Angels, Walker Bueller Revenge Game against the Dodgers. This one looks pretty good. Good slate. Yeah, I like JT. Ginn at the Angels. I like Joey Ken.

Cantillo against the Mariners and Michael McGreevy against the Marlins. And I don't even dislike Walbert-O-Mrania against the athletics. I think, agreed. Cantello is one of the more interesting pitchers to watch this weekend at the very least, because it was what the curveball he started throwing a ton more last time. It was really good for him. That's something to keep an eye on because he's been really just change up or nothing in terms of quality pitches.

And if the curveball can be good, that could really matter. So I'm going to watch that one closely. on Saturday we have Jake Bennett against the Yankees Kumar Rocker at the Blue Jays Brendan Young against the Nationals Slate Saccone against the Mariners Jack Perkins at the Angels Scott all your love for Friday is now gone

on Saturday. Woof Yeah I don't want to stream anybody on Saturday Holy cow. Yeah I like Bennett but I'm not starting against the Yankees if I can avoid it. If I had to choose I would probably say Bennett or Sukoni

but I think Perkins is the best one if I have to pick one if I had to pick if I had to pick one I'd pick Bennett but I'd rather not start Jake Bennett on Sunday Brady Singer at the Pirates Mitch Keller against the Reds

Zach Lattel at the Orioles Merrill Kelly at the raise Connor Prelip gets the Rockies in Minnesota Anthony Kay against the Royals and Andre Palante against the Marlins Palante and Kay Kay? Kay? And that's it.

Yeah, I don't. I could see a good Connor prelip start, but he hasn't been very good. Right. Yep. I think we're all in agreement there. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.

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