Fantasy Baseball Today - First Half Recap! MLB Trends & Surprises at Each Position (7/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Batting average and home runs are slightly up so far this season (4:11)! ... ERA and WHIP is actually higher this year than it was back in 2021 with the juiced ball (10:49). It's led to a lot of volatility at the position. ... News (26:30): Jordan Romano left the All-Star game with back tightness. ... Let's get into our first half surprises, starting with Yandy Diaz (30:20). ... Jonathan India and Ketel Marte have both bounced back (34:40). ... Is now the time to sell-high on Spencer Steer (39:06)? ... Wander Franco is finally putting it together (46:20). ... Is now the time to sell Corbin Carroll given his shoulder injury (50:17)? ... Are we buying Tyler Wells (53:30)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. The first half of the season was incredible from Shohei Otani to Ronald de Kuna. And now, Ellie Dela Cruz.

Let's talk about it. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, July 12th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers, and guess who's back? Back again, it's Scott White. The crowd goes wild. Welcome back, Scotty. How was vacation? It was good.

Yeah, nice, nice long vacation in the middle of the summer with the kids. We took them all over the state of Florida. Actually, went as far west. We spent most of the trip, like, in the Pensacola area, which is about as far west. which is about as far west in Florida as you could go. So we traveled both lengths of the state, which is a really long way. It turns out it's like 10-hour drive.

Florida is a tough drive. Yeah. That's like that's one of the things when you live in South Florida your whole life. Is it like it's just like seven hours to get out of the state? It takes forever. Yeah. That's if you go to one length. Yeah.

And we went both of the length. Yeah. And you turn at Gainesville. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, so it was good. Spent a lot of time at the beach, of course, but did some other things along the way.

Went in the cave. I pet a horse. I didn't ride the horse. I just pet the horse. Actually, like, three horses. It was a whole. There was a whole barn of horses. And gosh, what else did I do.

Is that the term for it? A barn of horses? Like a murder of horses? I don't know. I don't know what a group of horses. A gallop of horses. I don't know. But yeah, no, it was a good time.

Hopefully you guys didn't miss me too much. Oh, we did, Scott. It sure seemed like a lot was happening. I tried to take off during a time when I'm going to be missed the least. And no, like everything. I, you know, I guess it's just, maybe it was just the normal amount of stuff happened. But when you're not plugged in and commenting on it every day, it seems like a lot from afar.

Mike Trout breaking his hand and Alec Manoa coming back and looking more or less like Alec Manoa again and Andrew Abbott having his best start and then having his worst start. And yeah, just a lot, a lot happening. Yeah, Corby and Carroll's arm almost falling off. LD. That happened before I left and then happened again. Two different, two different Corby and Carol scares. That's crazy stuff.

But we are happy to have you back. Chris, did you research the group of horses? because I couldn't find anything. Is it a herd? A team. Okay. Harris. A rag.

Or a string. I don't. This is according to the farmer's almanac. They would know. If anybody would know, the farmer's almanac would know. I think they would. If anyone out there knows what the group of horses is called, let us know because obviously, I have no idea what's going on.

It's a herd if they're wild. Today on the show. We're going to recap the first half. How do league-wide trends compare to years past so far this season? And the biggest surprises at each position will look at both the good and the bad. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already.

And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We really do appreciate it. Let's get into it and talk about trends so far this season and what does it all mean? Remember, early in the year, we were trying to figure out batting average and babit, and home run to fly ball ratio.

What's going on? Well, now we have a little bit more data. So far this season, a 248 batting average collectively across baseball with a 297 BABIP. And frankly, I thought it was going to be higher than that. It felt like earlier in the season, it was so much higher. But if you look month by month, it really hasn't been above 250 in any month this season.

It is higher compared to years past. If you look at last year, it was 243 batting average and a 290 BABIP. So batting average up five points this year, Babup up seven points. And in 2021, 244 batting average, 292 Babbip. So the previous two years were pretty similar. And then this year, it has been up a little bit.

But Scott, I think, at least for me, I kind of felt like batting average and babbip would have been higher than it's been so far this season. But teams are smart. They're probably finding ways to semi-shift and take hits away still. So maybe it's not that surprising. What do you think? I mean, I think you're understating.

the significance of a seven point increase in BABIP. During the heyday of BABIP, the understanding was that an average BABIP is 300, which is close, we're much closer to that this year, 297. But in recent years, it had crept down to like 290 was the average BABIP. And so, you know, I think we're trending back more toward a place of normality here

after the lack of success on balls in play. in recent years. I think it's been, I don't know, I saw an article, I think it was on baseball prospectus saying, oh,

the shift has been a failure because it's, it's helped certain guys, but it's helped the wrong guys. And like, they didn't help that it was, they didn't like that it was helping, uh,

like slow-footed left-handed mashers primarily. And I was like, well, wait, that's, isn't that what everybody said it was going to help? Yeah, I don't understand.

So I didn't, I didn't really get the angle. they were taking, but they were taking it as, see, here's why it was a bad idea and it didn't work. But my takeaway from reading the article was, no, it sounds like it worked exactly like it was supposed to. So I don't know, I've been pretty satisfied with it. Yeah, I would say in general, the rule changes that they've made this year have been mostly good. I think it's been good for the game, batting averages up a little bit, the steals that's made things a little bit more fun. Ellie De LaCruz just running whenever he wants. Yeah, I think it's been, obviously the pitch clock

has been, I think, a great success as well. Let's move over to home runs. The home run to fly ball rate this year is 12.3% compared to 11.4% last year. So it is up, but not up as much as it was back in 2021, which was, I would say probably the last true kind of juiced ball year that we've had over the past, whatever, five to seven years. But Chris, it was a little bit surprising to me. I know home runs were up early this year, but it has remained.

They're up compared to last year, but not as high as they have been back in 20. 2021, which is, I think, a happy medium. You know, I think the, the juiced ball leading to every second baseman hitting 20 homers was, was not a great equilibrium. It wasn't rewarding talent. And I think the overall equilibrium here between the shift changes and the, and the juice ball and the pickoffs has created a, a wider base of skills that are rewarded within the game. And I that's overall good. I think for fantasy, one thing that's annoying is just that the fact that the ball is what it is now doesn't necessarily mean it will be this next year or frankly in August, you know, based on what we've seen or or if you believe some of the reporting for one team versus another. Like it's just the that that's the one thing that that will remain I think an a known unknown. as we move is just what is the baseball going to look like

if it was this version of the baseball you know 12.3 home run to fly ball ratio that seems like a good spot to be in you know it's not too low it's not too high like when it was like 15% league wide that was too much that is rewarding too much fly ball

and too much all or nothing offense but you know obviously I don't think we want a dead ball where you know guys are crushing the ball and it's dead at the warning track so I think this is a fine equilibrium. It's just from our perspective, the 12.3% home run to fly ball ratio that we're seeing now, who knows

what that's going to be next season? We can hope that they'll standardize it, but we know that they're experimenting with the sticky baseball in the Southern League, I think, is just where they're using it right now. Although that's over. It was just a first half experiment. Okay. So that's one that they probably won't do next year, but I would

imagine we're going to get some version of a different baseball in the majors in the next couple of seasons and we'll have to figure out what the impact of that is going to be. But this is one of the biggest lessons of the past few seasons is just how much seemingly minute changes in the shape and manufacturing of the baseball makes significant differences in the way the games played in a way that like frankly makes you question baseball history. How much of the steroid era was a juiced ball era, which was obviously a thing that people thought at the time, too. Let's slide over to stolen bases.

We already have two players with 40 plus steals this year. Estuary Ruiz and Ronald Acuna. There are currently eight players on pace for 40 plus steals overall this year. And if you look back at the past couple of seasons, only one player had more than 40 steals last year. It was John Burdie with 41 and two players with 40 plus steals back in 2021. That was Starling Marte, with 4. and Whitmery Field with 40.

So obviously, on an individual basis, it's helping the league leaders in terms of steals. But even if you just look at league-wide trends, how many steals are we on pace for this season? The most stolen bases since 1987. That's crazy. I mean, that's kind of what we heard coming into the season. We're going to see the most steals in baseball since the 80s.

And that's exactly what we're on pace for right now. So it is pretty crazy stuff. for the other two numbers, our highest batting average this season since 2019 and more home runs than last year, but obviously not as many as back in 2021. Where I think the league-wide trends matter even more is on the pitching side. So this year, collective ERA of 4.29 and a 131 whip. That's way up from last season where we had a 397 ERA and a 127 whip. but clearly we had some kind of dead in baseball and we had just a glut of great starting pitchers

last year in fantasy baseball. Back in 2021 with the juice ball when we still had a much higher home run to fly ball ratio than we do right now, we actually had a lower ERA and a lower whip than we do now. So I find that interesting because even though we have less home runs,

the batting average and the BABIP and the steals on top of all of that and maybe the pitch clock, you know, kind of factoring in too, has led to a high, higher ERA and higher whip than the last time we saw Juice Ball back in 2021. That's really interesting to me. I mean, it shows you the impact those other changes have on the state of offense and on the state of pitching.

Because for a while there, and this is something Chris has talked about a lot over the years. Like it seemed like the game was, I don't want to say broken, but the game had changed in a way that couldn't be fixed because pitchers had gotten and so good that really the only way to generate offense against them was to hit home runs. And I think now we're seeing that's not necessarily true. And that is for the good of baseball. Like I think because we're halfway through the season now, it's been something that's played out gradually and we've kind of, you know, we're kind of in the slow boil,

you know, the frog in the boiling pot slowly brought up to a boil as opposed to drop right in. And so we've kind of just grown accustomed to. to this new environment in a way so that it doesn't feel as jarring. But things have changed and it feels normal now, but this is not normal. This is very different from what we've seen in recent years, and I think it's a good change. To build off what you were just saying, it was the elite pitchers had separated themselves so far from everyone else in the pack, right?

That I remember when was it two or three years ago, Scott, you were just, I think it was all of your early round picks one year and Tout Wars were like starting pitchers. You actually wound up winning that year. That was the year and won, yeah. But basically, and I don't know what the advice technically is to give, it just feels like pitching is a little bit more unpredictable at this point because you can't just say, well, okay, if this is how things are going to be moving forward, that I'll just load up on starting pitching early on in drafts so that I can, you know, get that foundation.

But even pitchers that were drafted early this year, there's been a lot of names that have let us down, Sandy Alcantra, Aaron Nola, just looking up and down the list, like Zach Wheeler, we're kind of waiting for him to, for everything to click, but he's kind of been a bit of a letdown. Justin Verlander, Corbyn Burns has been a bit of a letdown. So it's not just, hey, draft is more elite starting pitching

because it's been a little bit more unpredictable this year compared to years past. It's, it's introduced a lot more variability to the pitching ranks. And so I guess if there's a negative in the fantasy game to these changes, that's it. But I don't know that in a broad sense, that is a negative because that is also returning us to a more familiar, like if we're just considering the entire history of fantasy baseball,

avoiding pitchers early was a longstanding time-tested strategy. That's why I had to be so vocal when I started going the other way, is because reprogramming people out of that long-standing philosophy of pitchers are too volatile, they're going to break your heart if you invest in an early round picking them. But I think we're back to that now. It's just like we're kind of back to a more familiar home run distribution and stolen bases not being so insanely scarce

that everybody who's capable of giving you 20 automatically is pushed into the early rounds. I think we're also back to a state at pitching where, yeah, you just have to accept a certain amount of volatility there and be careful not to invest too much in it. And particularly early. To make that point in a numerical way, I was sorry, I was silent for a few minutes because I was doing some research. But what I wanted to look at, my hypothesis was that in 2021, you know, the league-wide ERA was basically the same as it is right now.

It was 0.02 runs lower. The whip was 0.01. Whips lower. I don't know what an individual unit of whip would be. The hypothesis that I had was that while the overall ERA was similar, the ERA of fantasy relevant pitchers in 2021 was likely much lower than it currently is. Because remember in 2021, so few pitchers through 180 innings that like a lot of bad pitchers had to pitch a lot in 2021. That wouldn't necessarily happen in a season like this.

And that is borne out in the data where you look at the overall, numbers and the ERA is 4.29 this year, 4.27 in 2021. However, the ERA for qualifying pitchers only in 2021 was 3.61. This season, it's 3.83. So that just tells you that there are more innings being thrown regularly that are less lower quality than they were in 2021. So while the ERA overall is probably pretty similar, I would guess that the fantasy relevant ERAs are actually quite a bit higher this season. Yeah, and I think we have seen that play out with just some of the high-end names that I just mentioned, the names that we've talked about all season, kind of letting us down up to this

point in the first half. How are saves being distributed so far? It's actually been a really good season for saves. Nine players with 20 plus saves at the break, 26 with 10 plus saves in the first half. Last year, it was only six at the break with 20 plus. 2021, it was also just six with 20 plus saves in that first half. So it feels like there are more reliable high end closers this year. Maybe it's just a lack of injuries or a few more coaches just trusting in the back end of their bullpen.

There were a few names that instantly stood out for me. The Reds for the past couple of years, they couldn't find anybody to rely on. Now they have a lockdown closer. Alex Diaz, your number two closer reliever in fantasy baseball right now. No, there was a great tweet from Ryan Blue. Loomfield from Baseball HQ earlier today comparing relief pitcher ADP to where they rank. And among the top, I think it's top 15 that he pulled out in ADP, all but two of the top 15 relievers in ADP are currently top 24 relievers in fantasy ranking.

Number 24 is Ricelle Glacius. He has a good excuse. He got hurt. Scott Barlow and Ryan Helsley were also top 15 in ADP. and healthy's gotten hurt. Barlow just hasn't been good. But yeah, that's, or Barlow, Bailor got hurt.

So yeah, the Royals haven't been good. The really good relief pitchers, it's very much a haves and have not position now, but like it does seem like the closers who are good, you can actually rely on them now. It's just there are fewer of them than there used to be. You know, compared to, I guess, whatever, a decade ago,

but so far this year, it does feel like it's been better than previous years. Trending a positive direction again for fantasy. Correct. So it's nothing but good news here, which is comforting given how we felt for most of April, how we felt particularly for the first couple weeks when it seemed like nothing was going the way we expected.

And then can I show one more, tell one more stat? Sure. Another, hashtag Bloomboards, Ryan Bloomfield. Of the top 15 starting pitchers in ADP, it looks like nine of them are top 36 starting pitchers. Now, that's not great. Corbyn Burns being the number 35 starting pitcher. You'd prefer better than that from your number three starting pitcher taken. But, hey, we'll take that.

That's not a bad hit rate. That's about two-thirds who have been very usable. Pitchers 16 through 30 in ADP looks like one, two, three, four, five, six. have been top 36 starting pitchers. And everyone else has just been a disaster. I mean, Alec Manoa ranks 250th. Dylan Sees ranks 73rd, Hulu Aerea, 67th. You know, some injuries in there, but yeah, it's more,

the Aces haven't been great, but they've been relatively reliable, at least compared to that next tier at the position. Have they been good enough to justify the cost, though, I guess is what? No, not when Garer Cole. I mean, Garrett Cole has been fine, but like, Corbyn's the 12th overall pick in ADP. That's hard to stop. Spenthal Trider has been.

He has. It'll be interesting to look back because half a season is still only half a season. Dylan Seast seems to be trending a better direction now. And he's not alone among that group of starting pitchers. So we'll see how it ultimately looks at the end. But, I mean, I still think the takeaway for me when it comes to hit a, versus pitching is to lean into the volatility at pitcher and try to piece together a staff with upside arms

and emerging waiver wire options as the season is playing out, at least in like 12-team leagues or fewer. In a 15-team league, you know, it's been really hard to get pitchers off the waiver wire. But most people don't play in that format. So I would say the sort of shallower league that most people do play in, you don't have to invest heavily at starting pitcher. And in fact, the league where I'm doing best,

my best league this year where I'm far away number one in points, I think the only pitcher I, it was a salary kept draft. The only starting pitcher I invested heavily in was Sandy Alcantara, who hasn't even been good. And then all the other pitchers I took were two or three dollar guys. And, you know, obviously they're not still on my team. I traded them out for waiver wire options over the course of the year. But that's been my best team so far.

And it's a points league where you think pitching matters even more. You know, there's enough emerging options. There's enough volatility in a good way that you don't have to make a heavy investment there. Yeah, I think you're on to something, Scott. If you're diligent on the waiver wire, even in my most important league, it is a 15 team league. And I didn't take a starting pitcher until round five. And that was Framber Valdez, which he wasn't even a main target of mine. I just kind of lucked into he was like the best starting pitcher available at that point.

the draft. And then I got Lazardo and Kodi Senga, who, you know, for where they were drafted, they've provided a lot of value this year. And then I picked up Kyle Hendrix and Ranger Suarez and Michael Waka's been really good. And Bryce Miller was good while he was, you know, not hurt. So, you know, if you are diligent, there's still ways to kind of piece together a pitching staff. So I do think you might be on to something there. Let's take our first break. Before I pick the break, can I just give you a few scattered thoughts that have come up as we've moved on from them? Sure. Unrelated to each other, but related to stuff we've already said.

Okay, so one of them is with the number of consistent closers, with them appearing to be on the rise again. You think of the teams that we most avoided in the past because of volatility there in the late innings and just how consistent they've become. I mean, the raise have been as predictable as any team this year. When Peter Fairbanks has been healthy, he's gotten saved. So when he hasn't been healthy, Jason Adams gotten saves. And, like, they've been as consistent as anybody the Giants with Camilla Deval,

him emerging as a clear cut closer. There's another team, too, like that. The Reds, we brought up before. I mean, part of it is just those guys have been really good. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the race have had really good relievers in the past. The race are the one extent.

Yeah. Okay, so that's point one. And I think that's a positive development, as I said. point two in terms of home run to fly ball rate being up from last year remember part of the reason we were freaking out in april is because it was way up comparing april to april usually being the the worst month for home runs and it was over a 12% home run to fly ball rate which was higher than the overall home run to fly ball rate from 2021 well what's weird about this year is the home run to fly ball rate month to month

hasn't really changed that much. It's been between 12 and 13% every single month, April, May, June, July. July is the highest, but it's still less than 13%. That's small sample size. For July, yeah. Yeah. That kind of makes me wonder if maybe something's going on

with the humidor settings. Maybe they realize. Well, yeah, maybe they just realized change the relative humidity during those months. Yeah, it's certainly possible. I don't know if that's what happened but if we are going to see

home run consistency from month to month that's a positive development too. I think the biggest thing when we talk about this honestly juiced ball, not juiced ball. I don't really care. I have my personal preference. I think a more balanced game is better

but like as long as it's consistent and predictable, I think that is much better than the status quo of the last five years where it's just bounced wildly between, you know, various ranges. And so hopefully it's just predictable moving forward. The third and final point I wanted to bring up, I made reference to Cecil Fielder's 51

homer season. I made reference to Kevin Mitchell's 47 home run season. Neither of those happened in the 1987 season I was referring to. They did happen, but not that exact year where home runs were way up. Other players hit a lot of home runs that year. So I just wanted to correct myself there and point out that relying on memory is not always successful. As the new online sensation, Immaculate Grid is showing us all, Bobby Boni didn't make an All-Star team for the Orioles. And I thought he did.

Oh, how could you, Scott? Yeah. I gave up. I gave up on Immaculate Grid. Scott, that's something else that happened while you were away. That's honestly a big development I gave up. I'm going family feud style. Everybody's like, oh, I'm going to see the lowest score I can get.

No, screw that. I'm trying to get 70% on every one of my picks. I'm going for the most obvious ones possible. I love it. Let's take our first break. And when we return, some quick news and notes. And the biggest surprises at each position, we'll do that here on Fantasy Baseball today.

Welcome back and a quick reminder to join our Facebook group. If you haven't already at Facebook.com slash groups slash Fantasy Baseball today. Or just search Fantasy Baseball today on Facebook. and you should be able to find it. You can interact with other listeners, ask your questions, waiver wire, trades, dynasty. It's a fun community.

Make sure to join in. And if you're watching us on YouTube, scan that QR code. That will take you right to the website where again you can join our Fantasy Baseball Today Facebook group. The news and notes, Jordan Romano left the All-Star game after dealing with tightness in his lower back.

Hope everything is all right. But if he does have to miss time, Eric Swanson, looks like he would be the next man up in turn. Toronto. Look, keep an eye on Nate Pearson. He got a save the other day. I think it was like an inning in a third.

I think Jimmy Garcia also got his first save of the season within the last week. They might have been on the same day, Chris. I think it was a double header. Maybe. Yeah. But like, I think Swanson, he's just been the best reliever there.

But it wouldn't surprise me if they gave Nate Pearson an opportunity if Jordan Romano does miss time. Hopefully it's a big if. I think he's probably fine. Let's hope so. Luis Robert experienced tightness in his right calf during the first round of the home run Turby, so I hope he's all right to. Ray's prospects got something else that you missed while you were gone. Jonathan Aronda, he got called up and he's already been optioned back to AAA on Tuesday as Josh Lowe was reinstated from the family emergency list.

I think that's annoying. Yeah, Aranda's just, he's crushing it in the minors. There's nothing else he needs to do in the minor leagues. So I don't know. Like, he's always stood out for, like, his hit tool, his plate discipline, both in terms of strikeouts and walks. Not many strikeouts, a lot of walks. Now that we have exit velocity data for AAA, like, the guy hits the ball really hard. His average exit velocity is over 91 miles per hour, at least last I checked.

Relying on memory again, always dangerous. But, yeah, Jonathan Aranda, and he can play, you know, second base, first base, third base. Come on, Reyes. I know you got a good lineup as it is, but Aron, that could make it better. Don't worry. The Reyes have another top prospect coming up. He's 20 years old at AA Junior Camunero, who is in the futures game. We'll see him in 2025, the way they treat their prospects. And two other names we haven't even mentioned yet, Curtis Mead and Kyle Manzardo, who are still in their organization as well. So those guys have been a little bit of a letdown in the minor leagues this season. But, you know, as much as we bash the race, they're a smart organization, man.

Trade them to the Marlins. They win games. So it's like, yeah, we want to bash them, but hey, they know what they're doing. He never won the big one, Frank. That's fair. Jun Ryu has looked sharp in his two rehab starts thus far, allowing just one earned run over seven innings pitched with six strikeouts to zero walks. He's 9% rostered.

We haven't seen him be fantasy relevant since I believe 2021 or 2020. So it's been a while, but maybe an aim to watch there in deeper leagues. In MRI on Tommy Pham's right groin came back negative. he left Sunday's game with the injury, but sounds like he should be good to go. Johnny Quato was activated by the Marlins, and apparently they planned to use him out of the bullpen initially.

Craig Mish said if he wasn't getting paid $8 million, he'd already be a free agent. Ah, poor. I can't say poor Johnny Quito. Good for Johnny Quato. He's making... Very, very, very wealthy, Johnny Quedo, but yeah, he had like a 90RA during his time in the minors, I believe. Well, we'll always have

2022 with the Chicago White Sox. That was fun. Josh Donaldson is nursing a lower body issue and it looked like he tweaked his calf on Sunday. If he has to miss any time, perhaps we see Oswald Parraza back with the Yankees in the second half. Speaking of the Yankees, they needed a scapegoat so they fired their hitting coach. And they hired former major leaguer Sean Casey for the role. It's his first major league coaching job. So the mayor. Let's go.

Sean Casey. Great nickname. Let's get a jersey on that guy. It can't be much worse than the other names that they're thrown out there. Anywho, let's get into the biggest. in the first half of the season. I did not anticipate getting to, only getting to this with, you know,

like 20 minutes left in the podcast, but you know, we'll do our best. It's the FPT podcast, baby. That's basically it. At first base, we'll start with the pleasant surprise. Yandi Diaz, seventh best first baseman in Roto so far this year, averaging 3.4 fantasy points per game. 323 batting average with 13 home runs.

He had an 80p of 233 coming into the season. He's crushing the ball 94.7 average exit velocity. The problem which I've noticed is he only has one home run since the start of June Yeah, and his ground ball rate has crept all the way back up to 52 and a half percent. Chris, what do we do with you? Frank. What? He has two home runs since the start of June because he just hit one in the all-star game You are correct. He had gone from May 26 to July 9th without a home run. His is Production in that stint wasn't terrible. He still hit 326 in the month of June.

It was just no power, which is more of what we've come to expect from Yandi Diaz throughout his career. And yeah, all of a sudden, his ground ball rate to actually hire that was last season. And that was something I noticed as it was happening. Groundball rate month to month for Yanty Diaz has gone 43, 48.5, 58.4, 77.3. in July. So it's, uh, uh,

so that one fly ball he hit got out, I guess. It's, I don't know what, like, I don't know what to do with it because first base has so little to get excited about after the obvious top five, especially with like Vinny Pasquantino going down.

So like, you know, how are you, how are you going to get rid of Yandi Diaz, trade him or whatever and, and do better at first base? Probably not. not.

Yeah, there's not much. If you could get Vlad Jr. Well, yeah. But that's one about the top five. That's maybe like I could see Nate Lowe being better in the second half than he wasn't the first.

The power's pretty much disappeared for him. But it's possible, but like I'm not willing to bet on it. Yeah. Now that's, I agree with that. It's, it's hard to come.

Like maybe if you traded him for an upgrade somewhere else and you had Spencer Torkelson, who I think we all kind of like as a. if you want to define as a sleeper or breakout, you know, I think we think better days are ahead for Spencer Torkelson. But yeah, it's, it's the wrong time to try to sell Yandi Diaz. There's not much actionable with Yandi Diaz right now.

I think I would probably just stick with him. The batting average and the OBP has still been really, really good. And he leads off for one of the best lineups in baseball. I was looking into Nate Lau actually, Nate Lowe. Lowne Lo, wow, I just lost it there for a second. Nate and Josh Lowe, Brandon Lau. Gosh, you could tell the seasons is wearing on me. This is supposed to be the reset time,

and I'm kind of just losing it right now. But Nate Lowe, I was looking into him. He was much more aggressive last year, and for some reason he kind of changed that approach back to where he was before, and he's hitting some ground balls. Based on what he's done in the first half, I don't have faith that he's going to get back

to the player he was last year unless he makes some big changes. So I just wanted to throw that out there for Nate Lowe. Jose Ibrahim, he was one of the unpleasant surprises at the first base position, drafted as the sixth first baseman off the board, an ADP just inside the top 80 picks. And we know it's been a disappointing year,

but there has been signs of life since the start of June, 277 batting average, six home runs, a 779 OPS. He's hitting the ball much harder, and I feel a lot better, obviously, about, you know, heading into the second half, hitting in the middle of that Astros lineup. I moved Jose Brayu back up inside my top 15 first baseman.

You know, he's not like a slam dunk starter, but I do feel better if I held onto him as like a corner infielder for the second half. I picked him up in the podcast for the People League. That's a 16 teamer and he was dropped. So I was fine picking him up for a nominal sum. We're still talking his hottest stretch of the season. He has a sub 800 OPS.

So I'm not expecting great things from Jose Obrayo, but he's at least proven that you may still get some use out of him at that position we just talked about. being very thin. So you moved him back in the top 15 at a thin position, which I think is fine. Let's slide over to second base. The two biggest surprises by my estimation, Jonathan India is the fourth best second baseman in Roto. He's averaging 3.2 fantasy points per game. And Catelle the fifth best second baseman. His ADP was outside of the top, uh, no, it was close to 200. 196.2 coming into the year. Jonathan India, 13 homers, 12 steals. Catell batting averages back up.

lots of power. He's on pace for 110 run scored as well. I guess the one downside with both of these guys, Chris, is that India, since they moved him to the middle of the lineup, it seems like he's trying to sell out for power and he's hit for a lot less batting average. And Catele-Marty, you know, he's kind of dealt with his back injury off and on

the past couple days. So I hope he's all right, you know, reset at the all-star break. But overall, both of these guys have been pleasant surprises. Yeah, in India, we talked about this, I think, last week, but India has talked pretty openly about the uncertainty around his long-term fit with Cincinnati and really his short-term fit with McLean and L.E. de Cruz and obviously, Noelvi-Marte, and I think they've got a couple other middle infield or infield prospects on the way that, like,

he's talked about, I've been here for relative to his teammates a long time, and he doesn't really know where he fits. And it's a weird situation that I think could be. affecting him as well. The bad at second base has been Andrus Jimenez. He was drafted as the seventh second baseman off the board in 80p of 82, but similar to Jose Brayu has turned it around a bit. His last 25 games, 270 batting average with four home runs, eight steals, and an 8-42 OPS, you know, pretty impressive stuff there. Scott, any thoughts here on Andres Jimenez turning it around over the past month.

Yeah, he might be worth, I don't know, probably just in middle infield leagues, like a standard roto league is he worth picking up again? I don't think he's to the point where he's worth adding in leagues that just have like a standard nine-man lineup with no middle infield spot, whether you're talking head-to-head points or even head-to-head categories. He could get back there. And like in roto leagues, he probably never dropped in the first place, right? Yeah, he's still 90% wrong.

rostered. So it would have to be, I guess, do you have enough confidence in him to make a trade for the second half, basically? Oh, gosh. I'm surprised he's still so rostered. Yeah. I was talking about dropping him in May. Abel didn't listen.

Okay. No, probably not. I think one thing I've noticed, and let's see, when I did my last redraft of the first two rounds for the second half, I mentioned this with regards to Trey Turner. I left him out of my redraft for the first two rounds rest of season because the thing is stolen bases have become so prevalent that somebody like Andres Jimenez, just the fact that he could get to 20, 25 steals in the past

would have made him still really valuable regardless of what he was doing with batting average or home runs. But I don't think that's the case anymore. And the reason I bring it up with Trey Turner is I'm not confident he's going to get back to hitting 320. I mean, he's been hovering around 250 all year. And it hasn't gotten any better. And it's not like he's a big power source.

So if he's, unless he's going to be a 40 steal guy, which is not on pace to do anymore either. I'm not sure 20, 25 steals from a suspect bat does much for me anymore outside of really deep leagues. Here's the frustrating thing about Andrus Jimenez. First 14 games, he steals five. bags next 63 he steals two i don't i think he has attempts to in his next 63 games and then his last nine games he steals seven and it's like this is a guy that we know if he wanted to steal 50 bases

in this climate could do it because he's not a great obp guy but like 320 that's perfectly like that's that's it's not s terry re reese who's on pace for 80 so like it's yeah it's It's frustrating because both him and Ahmed or Rosari. I don't know what it is with the guardians, but they just don't let those guys run. And they would both be a lot more valuable for fantasy if they ran to their full potential. Let's slide over to third base.

And two of the biggest surprises this season have been Josh Young, who is the second best third baseman in Roto. He's averaging three fantasy points per game. I just checked this. He's actually the 22nd ranked overall player in Roto this season. So it has been a big breakout for Josh. Young, as has Spencer Stier, the eighth best third baseman in Roto. He's averaging 3.2 fantasy points per game.

Young had an ADP outside the top 200. Steer, outside of the top 400. You probably picked him up at some point early on in the season. Scott, I did want to ask, with Spencer Stier, the expected stats are much lower. 246XBA, 418X slug. Would you look to sell high on him, or do you think maybe he can, he can kind of overachieve those numbers because he plays in Great American Ballpark.

I think I'm leaning toward the ladder and part of the reason I'm inclined to see the glass half full with Spencer Steers like what we're talking about with Yandi Diaz. He's first base eligible. And it's funny because, you know, coming into this season we would have been more excited about it being third base eligible, which he is.

So he's eligible at both of those corner and field spot. and provides a smidgen of speed to go along with just solid production all around. Is he outfield eligible? Yeah, he is. Is outfield eligible? Yeah. I guess he's on pace for like almost 20 steals. He's, I just looked it up.

He's 76 percentile sprint speed. Yeah. It's pretty good. So he's, I mean, he's kind of become another Jonathan, India, basically, has the same advantages going for him that India does. So I mean, I think it's fair to look at his statcast page and be like, ah, he's overachieving. I don't know if it'll last.

But I kind of think it will, you know, to a certain degree, you just have to go on a hunch and consider the steadiness of the production so far and the advantage of that home park. The other part of it, who's going to give you a lot for Spencer Steer? he's been really good man he's been really good but like this guy who had no prospect pedigree plays in a small market has not had a lot of hype has been a must start player pretty much all seas but like nobody's going to get but like okay he had some prospect credit but nobody was like whoa spencer steers getting called up yeah so like a borderline top 100 yeah people people are rightly skeptical that he can keep this up moving forward and i think that's just like what do you you're not going to get like i guess if you could turn him into like christian havier i think that's an interesting buy low sell high but like i'm not even sure you could actually do that yeah i'm i'm not sure either i think if you're going to try and sell high on him like i said he's

a top 50 player right now you're probably not going to get top 50 value but you know top 75 something like that it's that's probably the only way i'm moving it if not just hold on to steer he's been really good and he's part of one of the most exciting lineups in baseball right now in the Cincinnati Reds. In unpleasant surprise at third place, I wrote down Jordan Walker. It might not be completely his fault. Obviously, look, the way the Cardinals have handled him,

I think it was obviously not great how they kind of handled that whole situation. But the ADP did get pretty high for Jordan Walker. We had very high expectations. In 31 games, his returning from the minors, he is hitting 288 with six home runs, one steel, four caught stealing. In 858 OPS, he's hitting the ball really hard,

just too many ground balls still. That's the problem, 53% ground ball rate for Jordan Walker here. Chris, would you agree that he's been a letdown based on how high that ADP climbed? Oh, absolutely, but I also feel very good about him moving forward. He's, you know, I've got in the fantasy baseball today, newsletter tomorrow, both Frank and I picked him as our two of our second, or one of our second half breakout candidates.

And like you said, he's still hitting the ball really, really hard, 90th percent of average exit velocity and hard hit rate, 860 OPS since coming back from the miners, and a 30 homer pace. The runs and RBI numbers have been very disappointing. The steals, like you mentioned, four caught stealing, but he's still athletic, so I think he'll figure that out. And I still think this Cardinals offense is going to have a stretch where they're terrifying. You could have also picked Gunner Henderson as this.

third base disappointment, though he's also trending a direction that makes me feel pretty comfortable with him in the second half. Yeah, I'm kind of torn on how to approach rookies, because I know I contributed to Jordan Walker getting pushed into the top 100 and shoot Anthony Volpe getting pushed into the close to the top 100, right? By the time it was clear he was making the Yankees opening day roster. And then, of course, there's Corby and Carroll, who's been a first round caliber player and I look at some of my teams that are doing well

and a common theme is they have Corby and Carroll on them. And that's the guy who got pushed up the highest of any rookie. He was, you know, I was having to draft him in round four. But you know what the key case

there might be? What? Not just success of the high miners, but had proven something at the major league level. You know, maybe that might be the key. Yeah, Gunner was pretty good.

That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. So, I mean, I don't know. I guess maybe it depends on how the second half goes with Henderson and Walker. We're all expressing optimism here. But so far among the rookies that we were salivating over, or at least I was salivating over, I guess the consensus was,

only Carol has been really a success, a huge success, but the others have been huge letdowns that have really hurt you in the state. That's what we should expect, I think, you know, is that you're buying high, high risk, high reward players. You're buying volatile assets because you're buying guys who haven't proven at the major league level. But as we're seeing with Corby and Carol, if you pushed him into like the top 40, you're still profiting in a major way. Because most players who are known quantities, they're going to get drafted within a range where it's likely they'll perform. Obviously, are big outliers every year in both directions.

But generally speaking, you know, if a player's drafted 40th, you expect them to finish, you know, somewhere around there. With the young guys, if you draft Corby and Carroll 40th, there's a chance he becomes a first rounder. Jordan Walker, you draft him 90th, there's a chance he becomes a 40 ranked player. So that that's always the thing is that it's an inherently high risk, high reward way to play. And it just depends on your roster and your ability to ride the way.

waves, you know? Let's take our final break here. And when we return, we'll talk about shortstop, Outfield, starting pitcher, relief pitcher. Are we really going to do that in 10 minutes? I don't know. Heck, yeah. Let's find out right after this.

Welcome back and let's jump into the shortstop position and the biggest surprise. I wrote down Wander Franco. I think finally putting it together and living up to the hype, maybe not exactly the way that we thought it would happen. But he is doing it right now. He's 10th overall in Roto, 3.6 fantasy points per game, 278 batting average, 11 homers.

28 steals, much like his teammate Yandi Diaz, though. He had a sub-40% ground ball rate back in April. It's 52% since the beginning of May. And Chris, I think that's why we have seen kind of a power drought here and there for Wanderfranco. Yeah, when you mentioned he's 10th overall. Oh, he's 10th overall in the road. Not in shortstop.

Okay, I thought, okay. Because I was going to say like 10th at shortstop. That's, no, okay, that makes more sense. I think he's second. He's been pretty disappointing the last couple of months. He had an awesome April, 878 OPS. May hit for average, but not power. Still stole 14 bases in May, which is wild.

730 OPS in June, only six deals, 665 OPS in July. Definitely trending the wrong direction. But overall, yeah, I think you're very, very happy if you have Wander Franco. And he's somebody who I talked about how steals have become so prevalent than now getting 20 to 25 isn't a big deal to me unless you can really hit. Well, I still question whether Wander Franco can really hit. Like, you know, to be an actual batting average standout, to be an actual plus in power.

I still question at this point whether he could be that. But he's on a 50 steel pace. I did not think he had this in him. Exactly. That's really been a game changer for him. If he's going to be a league leader type in stolen bases, then it puts a lot less pressure on that bat to deliver what we hoped it would when he first broke into the league. And I think it makes him a cinch, you know, top 25 guy, even if we don't think he's going to sustain top 10 production.

He is 59th percent on sprint speed. They just let him run. He's got the green light. That's wild. That's it. Yeah, they just let him go. That's Wander Franco. On the bad side of things, look, Tim Anderson, he had an ADP just inside the top 90 this season. He has the same amount of home runs as Scott, Chris, and me combined this season. So you can do the quick math on that. He is batting 2.23. I don't know if it's just a lack of health. Chris, we were talking beforehand. There's like some kind of all field stuff that's been happening with Ted Anderson. So all of those things combined, it just seems like it's going to be overall a down year. Maybe he'll get traded somewhere and that will, you know, light of fire under him, but yeah, it's obviously been a disaster here for Tim Anderson. Of course, we've got to give a shout out to Ellie Daler Cruz and what he's done. He's lit the sport on fire as a 21-year-old betting 325 with four homers and 16 steals in 30 games played.

That is a 20-homer 80 steel pace over 150 games. And I think we all expect the power to improve as he hopefully reverse his course on the ground ball rate a little bit there with Ellie. Is Dela Cruz. Head-to-head points per game. You think a high-strikeout guy like him's not going to be as good in points leagues. 4.28 head-to-head points per game for L.A.Cruz. I'm trying to see real quick if there are other hitters who have that many. Freddie Freeman's 4.1-1, and he's got to be among the highest, right?

Let's see, Acuna. Acuna is probably up near 4.75. So he's way out. Carol's only at 3.9. Okay. So there you go. So, L.A. de la Cruz is performed like a top five hitter, basically, in points leagues to this point. And that you would think would be his worst format.

Let's move over to the outfield. And I have a lot of names written down here. But the mostly positive ones, Ronald Acuna, number one player in fantasy, but it's just the way he's doing it right now. 332 batting average. He is currently on pace for, excuse me, 39 home. runs, 76 steals, and a 147 runs pace so far this season. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. Corby and Carroll, he was dubbed a breakout by many, and he's batting 289 with 18 home runs and 26 deals. Scott, I saw you respond to somebody on Twitter asking whether or not we should try

and sell Corby and Carroll, given the shoulder injury. What do you think about that? I get the incentive to do that, but you've got to find somebody who, who's not concerned about the shoulder in order to get a fair return for Corbyn Carroll. I would not accept less than first round value for him. And I don't know that you're going to get those kinds of offers for him because they're just as concerned about the third as you are. And all likely, maybe playing a league with a bunch of people

who have their head in the sand, but probably not. By the way, that 147 run pace for Ronald Acuna, uh, 145 runs has happened four times. in the last, that looks like 74 years. Well, Sammy Sosa in 01, Bagwell in 2000, Craig Bigio in 97, Ricky Henderson in 85, and then you have to go back to Ted Williams in 1949. Crazy stuff for Ronald Acuna. Wanted to give a shout out to Christian Yelich, who is ninth overall in Roto, not just at

outfield. He's ninth overall. And Lane Thomas, who's currently the 15th best player in Roto, betting 302 with 14 home runs, eight steals. He is also on pace for 109 runs scored, 89 RBI. Chris, similar question that I had for Lane Thomas as Spencer Stier. The expected numbers don't look as good. He obviously plays for the Nationals. Would you look to sell high or do you just think you're not going to get fair return for Lane Thomas? It's better to just hold on to him. So in this case, the expected numbers are much worse and we do have a much bigger MLB track record of him being fine, but not anywhere close

to this level of production. So yeah, I think Lane Thomas is a pretty obvious so high candidate. It's not to say that he can't be good moving forward, but no, I don't expect. He does pull the ball a lot,

so that helps. But yeah, I don't, he doesn't have the park factor going for him like Spencer Steer does. He doesn't have prospect pedigrees. And I've seen him, I've seen him sold high in a couple leagues already.

Yeah, yeah, I think Lynn Thomas is absolutely a sell high. I think he's probably a good real-life trade candidate, too. So I wonder if maybe going to another team, I can't say it's going to help his value because he's been so good, but maybe it'll kind of help offset some of that.

Very disappointed he wasn't the Nationals All-Star representative. Yeah, something against Josiah Gray. I looked up in- Yeah, something against Josiah Gray. I looked up and Josiah Gray was pitching in the All-Star game. I said, what? What's going on here? A little weird.

Yeah, I mean, he's been fine, but yeah, Lane Thomas has been amazing for them. At starting pitcher, so many names. to choose from the three pleasant surprises that I, you know, picked out here. Nathan Avaldi, who had an ADP of 227 coming in. Mitch Keller at 342. Tyler Wells, complete afterthought. 580P coming into this season.

And, you know, Scott, I could nitpick a little bit on all three. Of all these, Veldy's velocity has been down recently. Mitch Keller has struggled a bit over the past month. Tyler Wells has a 464 FIP and a 432 X-FIP. So it took up a ton of home runs. Would you be looking to maybe try and cash in on any of those names? Avaldi, Mitch Keller, and Tyler Wells. I don't think I would.

I mean, it would depend. Like, okay, so I'm looking at, skipping ahead to some of your unpleasant surprises the starting pitcher here, and you got Sandy Alcantra on Aaroni. Okay, I would trade. I would trade any of Keller Wells and Avaldi for either of Alcantra and Nola. So if that's the kind of trade you're talking about,

fine. But, you know, I probably don't have enough excess at starting pitcher that I'm willing to give up a guy who has shown the capability of doing what they're. Like, for the most part, I believe in Mitch Keller, the velocity being down recently worries me. Yeah, the strikeout to walk ratio the last like month or so has been pretty bad for Mitch Keller. And Wells, you mentioned, he gives up a lot of home runs. I mean, that's that's that one point nine per nine. That's, a lot of home runs. He's in a, he is an extreme fly ball pitcher and that's part of the reason why his whip is so low. It's the double-edged short of giving up a lot of fly balls. And he pitches in a good part for someone who gives up a lot of fly balls. So maybe he's had some good

ERA luck with those home runs. But I don't know. I'm pretty, I have a decent amount of faith in Tyler Wells at this point. Wells is the one that like if I could get any kind of useful pitcher for him, I would do that. If I could get anyone that I project inside the top 50, the rest of the way, I would probably make that switch. I don't really have much faith in him. Keller, so yeah, what I mentioned, May, he had 53 strikeouts to five walks, which is outrageous and that was never going to be sustainable.

But in a month and a half since, a month and a third, I guess, 36 strikeouts in 42 innings, 17 walks. So almost a 2 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio. So, you know, the thing I like about Keller is he has turned himself into quite a good manager of quality of contact. And so I think there's a high floor either way. But, you know, the ceiling that he showed early on, I'm starting to think isn't going to be there. Last point on Tyler Wells. I think I would aim a little bit higher if you can.

I think top 30, top 40 starting pitcher value for him. I've moved him up inside, you know, close to my top 40. There could be some regression, obviously, how great he's pitched so far. But, you know, he's also been really good and has a really good home ballpark there with Tyler Wells. The three unpleasant surprises, Sandial Concer, with an ADP of 22.8. He's got a 472 ERA and a 125 whip. Aaron Nola, he had an ADP of 25. He's got a 439 ERA and a 11-whip.

And Alec Manoa, we'll talk about in just a second. But Chris, would you still be looking to buy on both Sandy? and Aaronola for the second half. Absolutely. I know it's been a rough stretch and neither of them has really shown consistent that they're figuring it out. Like we've seen some flashes from both of them.

You know, both their most recent starts were quite good. But I still think the longer track record suggests that both Arenola and Sandy Alcantor are going to be very good. I haven't dropped them outside of my top 20 starting pitchers. And I pointed this out, I didn't put specifics on it, but I pointed this out before I went on vacation.

with Aaronola, like, yeah, the ERAs remained high. He's the 18th best pitcher in points leagues. Yeah. The volume is awesome and a lot of strikeouts, you know, 120 strikeouts at the All-Star break is a pretty big number. Yeah, I mean, it's just that ERA, right? That's what stands out most for Aeronola. And this happens.

You look at his season log and it's like odd year, even year. One year the ERA is down, one year it's up. It's just really frustrating when it comes to Aeronola. We haven't talked about Alex. Manoa, and his first start back, which you know, you mentioned earlier, Scott, made his first start with the Blue Jays last Friday against the Tigers, obviously a really good matchup. He went six innings, one run aloud, eight strikeouts to zero walks, 11 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. Velocity was fine. No major pitch mix changes that I could see. Zero walks. That's what it comes down to.

Massive there for Alec Manoa. Scott, do you have faith? I don't know. I don't know how much faith could have after just one start but do you think Munoa could get back on track here in the second half well I got to say I mentioned my best team this year my worst team this year was the only one I drafted Alec Manoa to be on and I dropped him the week before his return and missed out on the bid to get him back so that's a 15 teamer that's TGFBI actually it's my worst team this year dead last thanks in large part to the bad times with Minoa. Like we obviously have to see more.

It was against the Tigers. But I think the most encouraging thing about it was that he walked nobody and that he threw a very high percentage of his pitches for strikes. I don't remember exactly what it was. But it seemed like, in that one respect, it seemed like a night and day difference for Alec Manoa. And that has me encouraged.

That made it. So I wanted to pick him up again. Yeah, I think the slider is going to be key there. You know, you know, Saras has talked about the dip and slider quality since Minot's rookie season, really. And in this one, he only had, I think, four swinging strikes. It was like a 21% whiff rate, which is pretty lackluster. But he had a 60% zone rate with the slider, which makes it a lot easier to stomach the mediocre whiff rate because it's, it's harder to get whiffs inside of the strike zone. But if he was consciously pitching to the strike zone in his first

start back, then I think that that's a good sign moving forward. that he'll be able to hopefully locate that pitch. I'm considering moving Manoa back into like the top 50 range at starting pitcher. Just because they trade Tyler Wells for Alec Males. Absolutely. No question for me. Maybe I'm, but I'm on the low end of confidence in Tyler Wells.

I just don't really believe in it. I think you can get. Oral if they're so good is the other thing. I mean, you look at how useful Dean Kramer's been with like a 450 ERA. And I just wonder what the floor really is for, Tyler Wells. I think you could probably get Manoa Plus for Tyler Wells. Maybe I'm just overvaluing Tyler Wells, but

I mean, as good as the numbers are, I would try. Why not? Try that first. To offer Tyler Wells for Manoa and another piece if you're looking to sell high there. Shout out to all the fun rookie pitchers that have come up this year too. We've had Yuri Perez, Andrew Abbott, Tanner Bybee, Bobby, Bobby Miller, Taj Bradley, Bryce Miller, Gavin Williams. It felt like every other day we were talking about a new pitching prospect that was getting called up. Not all of them have worked out.

And two of them have even been good. I was going to say not all of them have worked out, but, you know, there has been some fun times. And of course, we didn't mention Brandon fought either. I don't think there's any reason to mention him. The best for last, it's our king. Showtime. Just got to mention, he leads baseball with 32 home runs,

302 batting average, 63 runs scored 71 RBI, 11 steals, and then as a pitcher, 132 strikeouts. That's fourth most in all of baseball. 332 ERA, 1.10 whip, 189 batting average against. He is unstoppable. He is amazing.

Yeah, it's like even acknowledging that wins above replacement probably doesn't adequately capture his true value. He's still on like a near 12 win pace this season. I mean, on baseball reference. Knock on wood. You know, something catastrophic would have to happen, but I can't remember a time that, it feels like the MVP race is so locked up in both leagues already.

Anything could happen. But, I mean, Otani and the AL, Akuna and the NL, those guys have been otherworldly this season. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.