Fantasy Baseball Today - First Half All-Star Team, Trade Deadline Lookahead & Bold Predictions! (7/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Congrats to Teoscar Hernandez who won the Home Run Derby but what was up with that National Anthem (1:00)? ... Who were our Oh My Goodness Players of the first Half (2:10)? ... Let's create a first half All-Star team, starting with the hitters (11:00)! ... Which pitchers made our All-Star rotation and bullpen (21:28)? ... Could big names like Garrett Crochet and Jazz Chisholm be on the move by the Trade Deadline (30:20)? Which current closers could be moved? ... We wrap up with some bold predictions for the second half (39:28)! Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 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/ 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

Just a heads up that today's podcast is from our show on CBS Sports Network, so the intro slash outro music and our audio will sound a little different, but enjoy the show and enjoy the All-Star game. So you made it through the first half of the fantasy baseball season. Give yourself a pat on the back because it has been a challenging year so far, and there is a lot of baseball to be played. Welcome into a special All-Star break edition of Fantasy Baseball today on CBS Sports Network. I am Frank Stample, joined as always by Scott.

White in studio, I might add, and Chris Towers. And we've got a fun show plan for you today. We'll have our, oh my goodness, gracious players of the first half, create a fantasy baseball all-star team. We got some trade deadline talk, the trade deadline coming up on July 30th, and both predictions for the second half. Before we get to all of that. The home run derby was last night.

Lots of fun, as always. And as we all predicted, the final four, Bobby Wood Jr., Jose Ramirez, Tey Oscar Hernandez, and Alec Bohm, shout out to Hernandez, who took it down against Bobby Witt in the finals to win the championship. The real question here, what happened with the national anthem? That was insane. What was going on? You know what it kind of reminded me of is like when your kid brother says something really annoying and you come back with that, me, me, me, me, voice.

That's what the whole national anthem was like. Like it was something your kid brother said, and she was, I don't know. It was a mess. Look, man, I'm on national TV for the second time in my life. I'm not going to tempt fate by making fun of someone else's struggles on national TV. That's not going to happen for me. I'm not going to take that chance. Fair enough.

The biggest takeaway, Fergie, you are forgiven. Let's get things started with our, oh my goodness gracious, player of the first half. And for those who listen to our daily podcast, you know that we lead each nightly recap with our players of the night. and why would we change that now? Oh my goodness gracious! Let's start with Scott and get to a player from the first half that you would like to highlight.

Okay, so mine is Aaron Judge, who was far and away the best player in fantasy two years ago, but how quickly we all forget, he was kind of an also-ran among first-rounders this year. Nobody was particularly excited to draft him. And what set him apart two years ago was, of course, the 62 home runs more than any players hit in American League history. So I think everybody was thinking,

okay, it's not going to happen again. That was, it's never happened before, obviously. It was a reasonable presumption. But what stood out to me most in that 2022 season wasn't so much the 62 home runs as 16, as in he had 16 more home runs than everybody else. 2020 was a bad year for home runs, the worst in seven years, which made that record-setting season even more impressive. What's always been true for Aaron Judge is that nobody delivers a better barrel rate. And barrel rate, by that I mean the percentage of batted balls hit with the optimal exit velocity and launch angle for maximum damage.

And, you know, with that outlier rate, the years where power is down league-wide, Aaron Judge's power output stands out as a total outlier. And, you know, as bad as that 2022 season was for home runs, you know, what season has been almost identical is 2024. So once again, we're seeing Aaron Judge with that outlier barrel rate. He is distancing himself from the pack in home runs and distancing himself from other players in fantasy Shohei Otani is hanging with him in Roto, but in points leagues, Aaron Judge is far and away the best. Now, I will point out that in July, home runs are suddenly surging again, so who knows if the second half is going to play the same as the first half.

But the first half being what it was, the ball playing as it did. Judge, I think, has re-emerged in my mind as the best player in fantasy. If we're redrafting today, he's who I'd take first overall. At the break, Aaron Judge leads baseball in home runs, RBI, OBP, Slug, OPS, Woba, WRC Plus, average exit velocity, and barrel rate. So, yeah, he's been pretty awesome. He also set the Yankees franchise record with 34 home runs before the All-Star break. Currently on pace for 56 home runs this season. We know that he had 62 two years ago.

Chris, do you think that Aaron Judge will surpass his 62 home run season? I think that's probably pretty unlikely. He's not on pace for it, although he's actually, I think, a little bit of head or right at the pace he was in 2022. So it's possible. It doesn't really make sense to bet against this guy. Like Scott said, he was oftentimes a second rounder in drafts this year,

which if you've got Aaron Judge on your team, you're probably doing pretty good as a result of that. You got two first round picks, basically. And the thing is when the ball's not traveling as far this year, and you've got guys who hit the ball. ball three rows into the stands, they're going to lose a lot if the ball's suddenly not traveling as far. Aaron Jones is hitting it 76 rows up. So if it goes 70 rows, he's still going to hit a lot of home runs. That's the takeaway for him over the past couple seasons is we've seen a different

offensive environment, but he hits the ball so hard that it just doesn't really matter for him. Chris, let's stick with you and get your, oh my goodness gracious player of the first half. Yeah, we'll go with a player who was not on fantasy radars. I mean, Aaron Judge slipped a little bit in drafts. Garrett Crochet wasn't being drafted. It was like a big joke when the White Sox named him their opening day starter. This guy who had never made a major league start is the opening day starter while the White Sox are terrible. Well, it turns out we were underrating Garrett Crochet, who has been one of the best pitchers in baseball in the first half of the season.

he leads the majors in strikeouts with 150 at the All-Star break. He's second in FIP. He leads the American League in FIP. He has this huge leg kick. He's really fun to watch that fastball, that cutter, that slider. He makes them all work really well for him. The question moving forward, of course, is how sustainable is this? This is a guy who is coming back from Tommy John surgery.

He had never thrown more than 66 innings in a season going back to college. had thrown like 85 innings total, including college since the 2020 season, and all of a sudden he's up to 107. He only threw two innings in his most recent start, got through those two innings with 28 pitches, struck out four. He's awesome. How much can we rely on him moving forward? That's one of the biggest questions facing fantasy players in the second half.

Well, good thing Scott White gets paid the big bucks, because that is the question I'm going to ask. The last outing before the break, Chris, you mentioned. Only two innings there for Garret Crochet. He's up to 1007 and a third. He had 73 career innings entering this season. Scott, how do we value someone like Garrett Crochet heading into the second half?

Well, yeah, I think you have to suspect there's going to be some degree of innings management. And I think, though, I may surprise you with this take. I think it's going to be less than people fear. Yes, two innings in his final start before the All-Star break. But the White Sox said that was with the intention that he would pitch in the All-Star game. They wanted him to have that chance.

So they gave him an extra short start going in. His final three starts before that, his pitch count was 93, 88, and 91. So they weren't laying off that much. Plus, we'll talk about it later. He's rumored to be on the trade market. The acquiring team's obviously going to want to get the most out of him. So I think there's a chance you could actually buy low on Garrett Crochet, capitalizing on the fear of him, his innings being severely managed.

All right, my oh my goodness gracious player from the first half is someone I was actually worried about entering the season. He has blown expectations away. That is Ellie Daler Cruz who leads baseball with 46 steals at the break. That's more than five other teams total so far this season. The 46 steals are 16 more than the next closest player. That's Bryce Terang who has 30. Ellie Dela Cruz also on pace for 28 home runs and 106 runs scored. He currently ranks as the fifth overall player in Roto, the seventh best hitter in head-to-head points leagues.

And if he keeps something like this up in the second half, I know there are ups and downs. There are very high highs with Ellie. There are very low lows. And sometimes people get a little crazy about, you know, all right, is he really this good? Is he really this bad? But overall, the numbers have been great in the first half. If he keeps this up, do you guys think that he is a top five pick heading into fantasy baseball drafts next year? We'll start with you, Chris.

I don't think they're top five. That's tough. There are a lot of really, like Jose Ramirez is really good. He's having a great season. It's in the discussion. If it's not five, it's probably not much lower than like seven. And it'll come down to how frustrated you are as a player

with the peaks and valleys that he generates. Because I don't think he's ever going to be someone who just puts up an 870 OPS every month. It's going to be a month where he looks like the best player in baseball, there's going to be months where he strikes out 40% of the time. But he's been much improved against lefties this season. He's got like a 750 OPS. He was really bad against them last year.

That's a big step forward. And just the edge he gives you in stolen bases, you can take him in the first round and kind of not worry about the stat category. That's a huge edge, especially for someone who's going to be a huge contributor in home runs and runs at the very least as well. Yeah, I was going to say I actually did my own redraft of the first. two rounds and L.A. de la Cruz did come in seventh for me. A couple spots lower in points leagues, you know, the strikeout rate is so high, but even in

points leagues, when you're, when you're racking up that many stolen bases, two points per steel on CBS. I mean, it still adds up to huge production, first round production in my mind. All right, those were our oh my goodness gracious players of the night. And as we all know, the All-Star game is later tonight. And let's build a fantasy baseball all-star team from the first half, starting with the hitters. We will do that up next on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back into Fantasy Baseball today. Let's create a first half All-Star team, and we're not just choosing the best players at each position.

We're looking for who's returned the most fantasy value, whether it's based on where they were drafted or picked up off the waiver wire. And this will be a collective effort. So we'll each get a position, and we'll go on, so on and so forth. And we will start with Chris, you get the catcher position. Who you got? Salador Perez, who nobody told that you're not supposed to keep. getting better in your 30s. Like, I'm 36. I understand every day is a little bit harder than the one before. Not for Salvador Perez. I remember 2020, he was someone that we had kind of written off as,

yeah, he'll hit some homers, but he's not really going to do anything else. And then he turned into one of the best hitters in baseball in 2020 and 2020. He had taken a step back last season, last couple of seasons. And then all of a sudden in the first half this year, he gets better at pretty much everything, not at hitting for power, but his batting average. K-rate is the lowest since 2015. His XBA is the highest of his career. If we don't count the short in 2020 season, even on the defensive side, he's suddenly like a pretty good pitchframer, which has been the biggest problem in his career. Like, Salvador Perez has just become this much more well-rounded player. And he's 34 years old. I don't think anybody saw this coming. Sure, sure,

you might have drafted him as the number six or number seven catcher off the board and thought, I got my 25 homers. He's going to hit 250. Whatever. I don't have to think about the position. He's got a 292XBA. Nobody saw this coming. It's been a wonderful first half for Salvador Perez.

And while I don't think he's going to hit 290 or anything like that moving forward, he's absolutely one of the five best catchers in baseball. And one of the few difference makers at the position in fantasy. He's been a remarkable value so far. Yeah, Salvador Perez got off to an incredible start. He has slowed down a bit. over the past month, but when you look at the overall package of what he's done this season, 282 batting average, 17 homers, 62 RBI, and an 820 OPS. That is an awesome return for someone

who was being drafted outside of the top 130 picks. Scott, let's go over to you, your first baseman for the first half All-Star team. Yeah, I'm going with Josh Naylor here of the Guardians, who was a mid-round pick in fantasy, but not as enthusiastic. There were other first baseman that I think people got more excited about in that mid-round range. And I think partly what happened here is the development for Josh Naylor was so slow. There were years of him being an underachiever and then a platoon bat. He really did come on last year, but even then there was some time missed. This year, though, it's all come together for him.

He's already set a career high with 22 home runs. He's been the third best first baseman in fantasy, regardless of what formats you're talking about. And as good as he's been, Statcast says, he's been one of the biggest underachievers. That 246 batting average, his expected batting average, according to stat cast is 273. So Josh Naylor may be in for an even better second half.

And we've seen the Guardians have made a conscious effort to hit for more power this season, and it has showed up in basically all of their players. Josh Naylor, Jose Ramirez, hitting for more power. Stephen Kwan even hitting for some power this season. So it's been a great season for the Guardians overall and Josh Naylor up near the top of that. I'm going to take second base here,

I'm going to go with Catelle Marte from the D-backs, who had an ADP right around 100 entering the season. He is currently the number one second basement in both formats. He's the 12th overall player in Roto. He's always hit the ball hard. He has taken that to the next level this year. 93.7 average exit velocity that ranks in the 96th percentile. Overall, he's batting 2.92 with 19 home runs.

Counting stats are great. He's chipped in six steals. I do want to give a shout out to Bryce Terang because he made this a really close call, and I really did consider Bryce Terang, who's had a breakout season for the Brewers. But Catele-Marté has been very consistent, breakout season for him as well.

Just stay healthy. Let's move on to third base, and Chris, you're back up. We always say development's not a linear path, but with Alec Bohm, it really has been. He's just gotten a little bit better at everything, every season he's been in the majors. His expected Wobah,

based on baseball savants stats, has gotten at least 10 points better every season of his career. He was already an excellent source of RBI. He kind of shared a lot with Josh Naylor in that way last year where like not a ton of power, but 97 RBI last season. He's been even better this season. Leads the majors with 33 doubles. Excellent source of RBI.

There could even be room for a little bit more over the fence power if he starts tapping into that pull side power. We saw home run derby. There's some raw power. This guy hits the ball. His launch angles and everything aren't quite optimized, but there's room for Alec Bohm to take even another step forward. If he doesn't, still a rock solid first or third basement in fantasy. Yeah, Bowman has made these subtle improvements this year, hitting a few more fly balls, a little bit more to the pole side.

And as you pointed out, in the home run derby, we saw some of that. So I think he could tap into it a little bit more. 70 RBI, currently fourth most in baseball, big breakout season for Alec Bohm as well. Scott, over to you. shortstop, another name in the home run derby. Yeah, Gunner Henderson, who of course people liked coming in. He was the rookie of the year in the American League last year. But he was like a third, fourth round pick in fantasy.

He wasn't considered an out-and-out stud just yet. Well, he is now. He's become one of the elite power hitters in baseball, enters the break, third in home runs. And I think as a consensus top five player in fantasy, now also contributes to stola bases, is eligible to two different positions, third base and shortstop. Gunner Henderson taking a huge step forward in a sophomore season. Gunner Henderson currently on pace for 47 home runs, 131 run scored, 233 steals.

And what I love is that he has improved against lefties and 854 OPS against lefties this season. I think that truly has helped him take that next step overall as a player this season. Let's get into the outfield. We'll take three outfielers each. And I'll go last just because why not. Chris, back to you, your first outfieler. Did you guys realize Brenton Doyle of the Colorado Rockies is a top 20 player in Roto leagues this season?

He's improved his batting average by 73 points here over year. He's already hit seven more or five more home runs than he had last season. This is a guy who I think you can make a legitimate case for him being one of the biggest real life all-star snubs, given how good his defense. He might be the best defensive outfielder in baseball. not for our purposes, but that still matters for real life. The only thing is, if we had recorded this show like 16 days ago,

nobody would have thought to mention Brent and Doyle. He had an OPS below 700 on the last day of June. He had seven homers before the last day of June. He has eight in July. So he's been red hot lately. Probably one of the more obvious sell high candidates if you can do it in fantasy. Although given how hard it's been to find anyone in the outfield, might be tough to justify moving him at this point.

Big improvements in strikeout rate year over year dropped to the strikeout rate from 35% to 25% that is Brenton Doyle. Scott, over to you for your outfielder. I'm going to go with Jerkson Profar of the Padres who may have been having the most surprising season up there with Garrett Crochet. I could have chosen Jerkson ProFar as my,

oh my goodness gracious player at the top of the show. He entered this year with an 11-year track record of being a non-factor in fantasy. I think the only reason he kept getting a job in the majors is because he once was the top prospect of baseball, but we're talking ages ago, on nobody's radar coming in, but he's been one of the few studs, from the very beginning, one of the few studs at this very weak outfield position. And I keep waiting for him to cool off for him to regress to the mean. There isn't a lot that's different in the underlying data for jerks and pro far, except he's just hitting the ball hard with much greater consistency.

And the production really hasn't fall off. I'm still thinking it probably will sum in the second half. But at this point, it would be hard to, like Chris was saying, for Brent and Doyle, it'd be hard to lose jerks and pro far just because we've all had so much trouble filling out our outfield with real difference makers in fantasy. You guys brought up two of the biggest breakouts at outfield this season, and maybe the biggest, Jaron Duran from the Red Sox, who we were all pretty excited about entering the season, and he has done exactly that. Big breakout, 283 batting average, 10 home runs, 62 runs scored,

22 steals. Alex Cora has given Duran free reign, and he has become a total game record. He's running like a madman. He's added some power. Splits look good as well. The expected stats seem to trust Jaron Duran. So don't think he's a sell high. I just think this is for real. This is a breakout season here for Jaron Duran. If we're mentioning a D.A. Shor Uttali, it's got to be Shohay Otani. Obviously, no pitching, no problem. The number one player in Roto so far this season,

29 home runs, 23 steals in OPS over 1,000. Here are his stat cast. Stat cast ranks this season. He is in the 100th percentile in expected Wobha, expected batting average, expected slug, average exit velocity, barrel rate, and hard hit percentage. Shohei Otani has been money so far in his Dodgers career.

Let's quickly recap the name. Our first half all-stars on the hitter side, we have Salvador Perez at Catcher, Josh Naylor at first base, Catell-Marté at second, Alec Bohm at 3rd, Gunner Henderson at Shortstop. In the outfield, we have Brenton Doyle,

Jerks and Profar, and Jaron, and at DH, again, no surprise with Shohei Otani. Let's continue on with our Fantasy Baseball All-Star team, and up next we will get to the pitchers here on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today with Frank Scott and Chris. Let's continue building our all-star team. And next we're up to the pitchers. We will have five starting pitchers and three relievers.

So building out a rotation and a bullpen here. Scott, you will lead us off with our SP1. What you got? I don't know that he's actually SP1, but he's certainly in the five for the first half. Ranger Suarez of the Phillies who came in with this immaculate control. He was spotting his change up in just the right place. down in the zone that that batters couldn't touch it. Through 16 starts he looked like a mid-90s

Greg Maddox with a 183 ERA. Now I will point out, final three starts in the first half, that ERA jumped by nearly a run, and I think it's going to continue in that direction. He's not actually mid-90s Greg Maddox. It's hard to sustain that level of control for that long. But Ranger Suarez is a good ground ball pitcher with improved control, no matter how you look at it, a great offensive team. I still think he's going to be plenty worthwhile in the second half. Yeah, it turns out Ranger Suarez

is pitching through a back injury recently, which could explain some of the results that we saw in those final three starts. I think if you could try and sell high on him, if anyone hasn't seen that injury status, you could do exactly that. You could try, but if you're not getting fair value for him, I think I would probably just hold on to Ranger Suarez.

Chris, let's go over to you for your first starting pitcher here in our All-SAR team. So as it turns out, Chris Sail just needed to stay healthy. He just needed an off season where he wasn't recovering from Tommy John Surgher. Well, there was like a bike accident one off season that hurt him. Like he's just had such bad injury luck over the past few seasons. But he was healthy this off season.

The Braves bought low on him. And turns out that was a great decision. They're doing a great job finding him extra rest. And I think he's just the NLSI Young favorite. They've been, he's only thrown on four days rest once in the first half. So that's hurt his volume a little bit, but he's consistently pitching deep into games. He's getting a ton of strikeouts.

I really don't have any doubts about his abilities to remain an elite starting pitcher. Obviously, the track record with injuries is a little worrisome. But given how many guys have gotten hurt, I'm not really going to hold Chris Sale getting hurt a year ago or three years ago against him when he's currently healthy. He's a top five starting pitcher in fantasy. Might be just be number one, frankly, if we're talking about moving forward. A 270 ERA, a 0.95 whip.

He has the fifth most strikeouts. He's also first in FIP, third and expected ERA, third in XFIP, and second in K-minus walk rate. Chris Sale has been awesome. Another one, please just stay healthy. My starting pitcher is going to be someone who is starting for the National League All-Star team tonight. He has just 11 career starts. You know we could not do an All-Star podcast without talking about Paul Skeens,

who we were told he was the best pitching prospect since. Steven Strassberg, he has lived up to that and then some. His 21.3 fantasy points per game ranked first among all starting pitchers so far, a 190 ERA, a point 92 whip, well over a strikeout per inning. He averages 99.1 miles per hour on the fastball. He's got a wipeout slider. And he has added a splinker. You heard that right.

It is a splitter, sinker hybrid that he throws in the mid-90s. And he just added that right before the season. And it's arguably been his best pitch. We spoke about Chris Sale, potentially having a claim to be the SP1 rest of season. If we didn't have any concerns about innings the rest of the way, I think Paul Skeens is probably in that discussion as well. Scott, let's go over to you for another starting pitcher in our rotation here. Well, just to follow up on Skeens,

I think the Pirates did such a good job managing his workload up front that I'm not sure he's going to run into an inning's issue. They basically treated April like his spring training, built them up very slowly. And you're right. that. His best pitch was the one we didn't even know about. So that's, that's pretty amazing. Okay, I'm going to go with Louise Heel of the Yankees, who leads the majors and walks, but even so, even for leading the majors and walk, 317 ERA, a 109 whip. And that's because

it turns out Luis Heel, I feel like he can really only beat himself with those walks. When he has stretches where he's throwing strikes, he's untouchable. He's untouchable. They can't, they can't hit him a 170 batting average against this season. Of course he gets a lot of strikeouts to 10.4k per nine. He's going to run into innings issues too coming back from Tommy John's surgery. And we've seen those ups and downs with the control. But when he's on, he's amazing. All right, Chris, route out our rotation here. Who you got? If you listen to the show, you might think it's kind of funny for me to be praising Seth Lugo because I've been the biggest skeptic of him all season. But it's really remarkable what he's done two years ago.

this guy was a reliever. Now he's maybe the premier workhorse in baseball. He's second in the league in innings pitched. Fourth in ERA, you can make a case based on preseason expectations. He's been the most valuable player in fantasy. I do expect worse from him moving forward. The underlying stats, the peripherals don't bag it up. But he's outrun his peripherals two years in a row.

We're getting to the point where I think you just have to take him seriously as a must-start starting pitcher, not an ace. Though I will point out we are getting dangerously close to undone. charted territories with his innings count. It's a little bit of a concern. I think there's a cell high window here still, but if you can't, it's not the worst thing in the world. I think Seth Lugo will still be pretty valuable moving forward. Yep, I agree with all that.

I think there could be some regression in the second half. While he's got a 2.48 ERA, it comes with a 331 FIP, a 393 expected ERA. So if you could turn, if you can get top 20, top 15 starting pitcher value for Seth Lugo, it's something I would look into doing. Don't know how realistic that is, but just thought we should throw that out there. Let's get into the bullpen, and the number one closer so far, huge breakout season, is Ryan Helsley from the Cardinals, who is the current saves leader with 32 at the break. He also has a 236 ERA, a 117 whip over a strikeout per inning.

He throws 99 miles per hour with a disgusting slider. Another name that just has to stay healthy, but he has been a workhorse out of that pen so far. They rely on him a lot. and he has paid off. He's been great. The number one closer in fantasy so far has been Ryan Helsley. Scott, over to you.

Another closer. Well, remember, this is bang for the buck we're talking about with this fantasy all-star team and so on. On that note, I'm going to highlight Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals

who was, he was the default closer on a bad team. Like, he only got that job because they had nobody better. And usually that's somebody to avoid in fantasy, he not going to get many save chances.

Well, the nationals have been better than we thought, and Kyle Finnegan has been a lot better than we thought. Entered the All-Star break with the thirdmost saves in baseball. Now, maybe he'll be on the move at the trade deadline. We've already seen his setup man, Hunter, Harvey, be traded to the Royals. Maybe Finnegan will follow him out. I'm not sure you're going to want to rely on him as a closer all season long, but it's been great in the first half.

All right, Chris, why don't you fill out the bullpen here, bit of a cheat code for fantasy. Yeah, you might be wondering why my, oh my goodness, gracious player wasn't one of our starting pitchers. That's because in fantasy, Gary Crochet's RP eligible. And that, like Frank said, is a huge cheat code because usually you're hoping for a save and a few points from your closer. And maybe you get three saves in a week and it's a great week.

Garer Crochet can start twice in a given week, give you like 22 strikeouts, allow to earn runs over 14 innings. Like, that's been pretty normal. for him. So just being able to slot him into your RP spot is such an edge. He's been a cheat code for the white socks. We don't know what the future holds, but Gary Crochet has been one of the most valuable players at any position in fantasy this season. And if there's a constant theme on today's podcast, it's going to be Gary Crochet, because we're going to talk about him in the next segment as well. Let's recap the fantasy baseball all-star pitchers. And in our rotation, we've got Rangers Suarez from the Phillies, Chris Sale from the Braves, Paul Skeens from the Pirates, Luis Heel, from the Yankees and Seth Lugo from the Royals.

And in the bullpen, we have Ryan Helsley from the Cardinals, Kyle Finnegan from the Nationals, and our little cheat code, Garrett Crochet from the White Sox. The trade deadline is rapidly approaching. Coming up on July 30th, we'll take a look at some of the biggest names that could be on the move, some bullpen shakeups, and more after this break.

Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. The trade deadline is rapidly approaching on July 30th. Who are some of the biggest names that could be moved? We will start things off with, you know who. Garrett Crochet, who is currently 25 years old, he has two more years of team control. Chris, do you think Garry Crochet will be moved?

And if so, which teams could be in the mix? There's a lot of smoke there. It seems kind of weird that a team that's rebuilding would trade a 25-year-old starting pitcher. But the thing you have to keep in mind is, because of all the time Garer Crochet has missed due to injuries, he only has two years of club control left on his arbitration. year. So while he's 25, he's only thrown 180 total innings, he's pretty close to free agency.

So a team like the White Sox that's thinking, you know, a three or five year timetable, he doesn't really fit there unless they extend him. So I get the idea of trying to capitalize on this great start he's had. And look, there's no shortage of teams that could use a player like Garrett Crochet. But because of the innings concerns, because of the lack of track record, it makes it really hard to find a fit. I'm sure it's going to make the negotiations for any trades with him really difficult. You want to talk about some teams that could be trading for him? Yeah. We got, I think the Dodgers and Orioles are the two most obvious ones, right?

The Astros, the Yankees could certainly use pitching. The Padres have traded with the White Sox also. But I think the Dodgers and Orioles make the most sense just because of where those teams are in their contending schedule and the depth of their farm systems. They have tons of potential impact prospects. that they could send to the White Sox. The Orioles, I'm a little worried that they're just going to stand pat. They made the big Corbyn Burns trade right before the season.

And it's kind of been quiet since then. There haven't really been a lot of rumors about them. They've got all these prospects. They don't have enough room for them. It seems like a perfect opportunity to go out and get another impact arm for the playoffs. But I just don't know if they're going to be that aggressive. So, you know, the Dodgers, they have like nine pitchers on the IL right now. you know, rotations only in five.

So they seem like a pretty obvious fit if they wanna be aggressive. Let's stick with the White Sox, Scott, and Luis Robert, 26 years old, he has three more years of team control. It's kind of been an injury plate season for him, but he's been pretty hot over the past couple of weeks. Do you think Luis Robert gets traded

and some teams that could be interested? Well, yeah, I mean, you could see it happening if the White Sox just totally purged their roster, which they mostly have already. I think Luis Robert may be a little less likely than Crochet because he has an extra year of control three left. And he hasn't had a typical Luis Robert season. It is getting better.

Batting average still has some ground to make up. We certainly want him to be moved in fantasy because the White Sox lineup is the pits, and it's holding Luis Robert back just in terms of the counting stats. Teams that could be interested, I mean, the Dodgers, the one weak point in their lineup is their outfield, really, and they seem to always pull something out of the hat on the trademark. The Braves are kind of that way as well.

Obviously, they've lost a couple outfielders, Ronald de Cunia, being the biggest name. The Cardinals could use an infusion of offense. So they all might be interested in Luis Robert. Yeah, I agree completely with those teams and the Mariners. They are a team we hear about annually that needs to add offense. They have not really done it yet, but I think someone of Luis Roberts caliber does make a lot of sense.

Jack Flaherty probably makes a lot of sense as well. He's 28 years old. he's having a big bounce back season and he is on an expiring contract. Chris, this one kind of feels like a foregone conclusion. I just don't know where Jack Flaherty is going to wind up. Yeah, I mean, it's tough, right? Because he's 28 years old. He's on an expiring contract.

How much are teams going to be willing to pay for him, especially he's taken this big step forward back to being, you know, a borderline ace this season. But it had been a pretty tough couple of years for Jack Flaherty before that. He's had this lingering back issue. He's had some shoulder injuries in the past. there are a lot of reasons not to trade for Jack Flaherty, but he's pitching like an ace right now this season,

the strikeout rate, the velocity rate way up back to where they were back when he was a Cy Young contender in 2019. And given the fact that he's an expiring contract, it does seem like an obvious one. I just wonder if the Tigers think, one, they have a chance to extend him. And I think they would consider that given that they feel like they're pretty close to making a run.

And then, two, just is anybody going to blow them a run? with prospects for an expiring contract. That seems like the biggest hurdle for trading Jack Flaherty. Yeah, I've read some things that the Red Sox have been linked to Jack Flaherty. The Astros could certainly use some starting pitching. Same with the Brewers, but considering the fact that they traded Corbin Burns away, I don't know that they're technically going to be buyers at the deadline. The Cardinals could use pitching as well.

Do we get a Jack Flaherty reunion? That one kind of ended a little bit sour, so I'm not exactly sure. What about Jazz Chisham? He's moved back to the infield this past weekend for the first time since 2022. It sounds like teams want to see that Jazz can still play the infield as well as the outfield. Scott, what do you think about Jazz Chisholm's chances of being traded? Yeah, so that would certainly open up the market more for the Marlins to get the best deal they possibly can. And I think this one's pretty likely because their GM just has seemed dead set on trading since about mid-April.

Jazz Chisholm, sort of like Luis Robert. His fantasy production has been held back by just a ghastly offense, and so anywhere else he could go would be an improvement. I think the Mariners are in this discussion. The Dodgers, of course. You're Yankees, Frank, if he's able to play the infield, which we think he will, second base. But yeah, I think Jazz Chisholm is pretty likely.

Yep, the Yankees. I've seen the Royals. The Mariners have all been linked to Jazz Chisholm as well. again, all teams that could use an influx of offense, but man, not just saying this because I'm a Yankee fan, but Jazz's swing in Yankee Stadium, that'd be pretty cool. That would be pretty cool. Let's talk about some current closers who are most likely to be traded at the deadline and who could be next up for saves. This is more so for deeper leagues. If you're playing a category league and you're just desperate for saves, maybe you look to stash some of these

names now. Chris, you are our resident Marlins fan. It seems like Tanner Scott is pretty likely to be traded. If he is, what do you think would be next up for saves? I mean, honestly, as the Marlins fan, I would be incredibly frustrated if they didn't trade Tanner Scott. He's had a much better season than any of us expected, but strikeout rates down, walk rate is way, way up. It's almost double what it was last season back to his career norms. I think he's gotten pretty lucky. And if they don't trade him, it's a huge mistake. So I will just say that, AJ Puck is not necessarily guaranteed to be next man up. but they wanted to move him into the rotation.

That went disastrously early in the season. They moved him back to the bullpen. And he started to look like the guy he was last season. He changed his arm slot in the rotation, tried to change his pitch mix. It didn't work. But he's been really good out of the bullpen the past couple of seasons. 18 strikeouts over his last 11 outings, only two walks.

So he's gotten the control under control, I guess is the way I would say that. And, yeah, AJ Puck is someone who can absolutely be a very, very, very, good closer even if it's you know manifest in eight saves over the final two and a half months because it's the marlins a j pucks last 11 outings heading into the break 12 and 2 3rd shutout innings with 18 strikeouts to two walks so he certainly has got back on track i think that makes a ton of sense and i also think it makes sense that carlos estavez could be on the move for the angels he is an expiring contract but another one's got where it's not a good team so i'm not sure we'll get a lot of save opportunities but if we do who do you think would be next step for

Angels. Well, if they really wanted to go the exciting route, Ben Joyce would make sense. He recently rejoined the team, and he's got a fastball that approaches 105 miles per hour. We've seen in recent outings, the strikeouts pick up for Ben Joyce. So that's definitely a name to know for the second half. And lastly, Kyle Finnegan, who we spoke about earlier, he's on the Nationals. They're kind of falling out of it. I think six games out of the wild card at this point. They've already traded away Hunter Harvey. He would have likely been the next man up. If I had to guess as to who would be next, I think Derek Law, who does have some closing experience, he's been okay this year, a 318 ERA, a 129 whip, and he was working the seventh inning before they traded Hunter Harvey.

So if we're just going in terms of the pecking order, I do think it would be Derek Law. But again, these are names more so for deeper leagues if you're looking to stash for saves moving forward. Let's take our final break. And on the other side, we will have our bold predictions for the second half here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today, and let's wrap things up with bold predictions for the second half. And Scott, you can get us started. All right, my bold prediction, Clayton Kirshaw, remember him. He'll be back healthy and the Dodgers' best pitcher in the second half.

He's, you know, there's a number of injured pitchers coming back. Jeffrey Springs, Robbie Ray, Ian Anderson might be back for the Braves, maybe even Jacob de Grom later on. But I think the one everyone is sleeping on is actually Kershaw for him being an all-time great. Coming back from shoulder surgery, okay, but we've been down this road with him before. He misses time with the shoulder issue. We presume he's not going to be the same. He's old, all of that. But then he just comes back and does his usual Clayton Kirschaw thing. Only once since his rookie season has he had an ERA over 303. Last year, he had a stretch where he was thrown like 88 miles per hour and he was still looking great. His rehab assignments gone

well. I think Kirschall is going to catch a lot of people by surprise down the stretch. Kershaw is set to make another rehab start this Friday at AAA, and he is 76% rostered on CBS, so it could be out there in some shallower leagues. Scott, you mentioned some other names that people are stashing right now, the Jeffrey Springs, the Robbie Rays. Would you put Kershaw at the top of that list? I would put Springs over him, but it's close between those two.

Springs is on the men, too. He's close to return. He'll probably be back maybe a turn before Kershaw, but they're both up there. All right, Chris, let's go over to you with your Homer, bold prediction. Well, no, because my Jazz Chisholm, my bold prediction, Jazz Chisholm finishes the season as a top five second baseman. And part of that is assuming that he's going to get traded,

because I'm not sure the Marlins are going to play him every day at second base. If he doesn't get traded, I know they're showcasing him there. But this is predicated on one, Jess Chisholm getting second base eligibility, which we talked about. he's started to play a little bit. I think he'll get the five games needed. Hopefully he plays there full time moving forward so we can go into next season with dual eligibility. But the biggest thing is just like we talked about in the trade segment,

I'm just hoping to see Jazz Chisholm certainly in a better lineup, but also a better ballpark. Marlins Park is a really hard place to hit. Man, I would love to see him with that pull heavy swing at Yankee Stadium. I would, to be clear, hate to see another great Marlins player in Yankees pinstripes. That wouldn't be great. It hurts me every time John Carlos Stan. hits a home run. But seeing him play at Yankee Stadium, I think we could see the best version of Jazz Chisholm we've ever seen and would instantly, I think, be in the discussion for top five second

basement. All right, we've saved the boldest for last. Admittedly, I don't think I'm very good at this because I went way too bold with my bold prediction. From the moment Kobe Mayo gets called up by the Orioles, he will lead the team in home runs. Pretty crazy because they have Gunner Henderson and they have Anthony Santander and Adley Ruchman. They obviously have awesome hitters. But Scott, Kobe Mayo, at the top of your prospects report, he has light tower power, and he's still available in some leagues

if people want to look to stash him. Yeah, I think he's the top prospect remaining to stash, and by a long shot, and that power is transcended power. I mean, very high-exe velocity readings, whether you're talking about average or max. He is a right-handed hitter who'll be going to Camden Yards with that deep left-field fence, So that's a little worrisome.

We've seen that kind of hold back. Ryan Mountcastle's power, maybe Jordan Westbergs, to some degree. But if anybody's going to beat that left field fence, it's Kobe Mayo, because his power is prodigious. But what if he leads some other team in home? What if he leads some other teams? Oh, wow. Will we still count that? Throwing a curveball out.

No, I don't think that would count because he said the Orioles. Whoever his team is, Frank, do you want to amend your your bull? prediction right now? Nope. If he goes to the White Sox, he will still hit more home runs than anybody on the Orioles. So I am sticking with the bold prediction.

All right. How about that? Make sure to follow Scott at CBS. Scott White. Follow Chris at C-Tower, CBS. Follow me at Roto underscore Frank. And we are going to wrap there. Thanks so much for tuning in to fantasy baseball today.

Good luck with all your fantasy teams in the second half.