Fantasy Baseball Today - Framber Valdez No-Hitter, Alcantara Coming Around & Struggling Outfielders (8/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

Framber Valdez threw the 16th no-hitter in Astros franchise history (1:18)! ... Andrew Heaney racked up a season-high 11 strikeouts (9:10). ... Juan Soto has been money since May (13:44). ... The Cubs and Orioles offenses exploded on Tuesday (18:11). ... Rank Heaney, Quintana, Oviedo, Mikolas and Gavin Williams (28:42). ... Time to drop Bryce Miller (33:06)? ... What do we do with George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Alex Verdugo (38:22)? ... News (45:15): Aaron Judge is dealing with soreness in his toe. ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (51:28). 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. On a day where the Houston Astros bring back Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez twirls the 16th no-hitter in franchise history.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday. August 2nd, I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, of course, we will talk about Framber Valdez, an amazing start by him, Sandy Alcancor coming around lately, what to do with three struggling outfielders, Tiaska Hernandez, George Springer, and Alex Verdugo. We'll talk about all that 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 jump in. Can you believe it? Wow. You know there's only one place to start.

Framber Valdez, baby, turns in the 16th no-hitter in franchise history, the first by a left-handed pitcher, and he only needed 93 pitches to get it done. The third fewest pitches for a no-hitter since pitches have been tracked, dating back to 1988. Shout out to Sarah Langs.

That was a great set, very fun. Only one walk aloud, seven strikeouts here for Valdez. 16 swinging strikes on 93 pitches, all in on the curveball. 45% usage. He had 12 whiffs on that pitch, 36% CSW. And let's be honest, for Amber Valdez was struggling lately. We thought maybe it was due to this ankle injury that he dealt with at the end of June, early July.

His previous five starts before this one, an ERA of 7 on the nose, 1.67 whip. but obviously an amazing bounce back performance. Chris, you'll get the first word here on Franbrvaldez's no hitter. I don't really have much to say. He's good. Yeah, like, it's a lesson in start your studs. Like, if you were freaked out about the last few starts and thinking about sitting him, that was a mistake clearly.

And this is one of those things where like it is lazy and frustrating. from a analyst's perspective and from a listener's perspective to just say, well, sometimes guys just have a couple of bad starts in a row and it doesn't mean anything. I understand that that can be frustrating to hear us say about a guy like Framber Valdez who does something like a 729 ERA in the month of July. Like you want an explanation. You want an answer for why he has been so bad and why he's wrecking your ERA. you know, but like sometimes just guys have bad starts.

And sometimes guys have three bad starts. And it doesn't mean anything. You know, sometimes sometimes you flip a coin four times and heads comes up three times instead of two. And it doesn't mean anything. That's not all the time. There are reasons why players go on hot or cold stretches and there are reasons why they may or may not be sustainable.

But generally speaking, when you've got a player like Framber Valdez, who has a multi-year track record of being really, really, really. good. I don't care about a couple of bad starts. I'm going to keep him in my lineup. And maybe there will be times like last week when I hate having Framber Valdez in my lineup. I'm glad I didn't consider sitting him this week. Yeah. And I do think there was somewhat of an explanation. I brought up the ankle injury. You know, it could have been something that he's dealing with. I looked a little bit further into those previous five starts. Home runs were a bit of an issue. Walks were an issue during that time. which, let's be honest.

For Amber Valdez, he's had really great control this year, and it could have just been some regression at this point in the season. So I think that's fine. The only, I guess, grain of salt comment here is it was a, I don't want to say historically bad. It might have been a historically bad Cardians lineup that he was facing. Stephen Kwan, Tyler Freeman, Jose Ramirez, that guy's good. Oscar Gonzalez batting cleanup, David Fry, Will Brennan, Gabriel Arias,

Miles Straw and Cam Gallagher. It's a pretty bad lineup. But still, it's a no-hitter and it's awesome. Scott, any closing comments here on Framber of all this? Yeah. I think I've had a lot of thoughts over the last four minutes that I wasn't speaking and now I'm struggling to figure out which ones need to come out to the surface. First, I was like 16 no-hitters in Astros history.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot for a team that's only been around 60 years. thought, oh, Nolan Ryan must have been responsible for several of them. But no, only one. There are some combined no-hitters in there, a couple with Christian Javier at the center of them, which makes sense. They did actually have 16 no-hitters, right? I didn't make that up. I have no idea.

I didn't count it. I looked up the history of no-hitters. Anyway, you know, it was a busy four minutes, even though I wasn't talking. Yeah, I guess to add to Chris's point, because I wasn't really swayed to sit Valdez either. It looks like he was started in 83% of leagues, still 83% of CBS Sports League, so it doesn't seem like many other people were swayed to sit him.

At what point does a pitcher as high end as that? Like, how long do the struggles have to go on to begin to think about it? And I don't, it's one of those questions that probably doesn't have a definitive answer. It's just kind of a fee. thing. But I feel like it would have to be at least five, right?

I mean, for me, like, I haven't thought about sitting Sandy Alcounter. And I know, like, I am on the further edge of that, but I just, I tend to rank and start players with an eye on talent. Like, my thought, it's not always that, but I generally want to start my nine most talented pitchers and talent levels fluctuate, but generally speaking, it takes a long time for someone like Sandy Alcounter or Framber Valdez, it takes a long time for me to think that their talent level has changed. Like, I've, I've not been moved to, to assume Sandy Alcantra as a less talented player than he was coming into the season. There were reasons why he wasn't succeeding

the same way he was. And that those, but like, I'm going to give those guys a long, long leash. longer than you guys. You guys might be probably are better fantasy players than I am because of that because you're more willing to be flexible. But there are certain instances where it works out that faith. I will say, there are a couple of leagues where I have Sandy Alcantra and there have been a couple of times that I've sat him in each of those leagues just because until very recently he hadn't strung together any stretch of success.

But then he throws together his two best. start to the season out of nowhere. Right. I mean, we are two-thirds of the way into this season. So it's like, now you do this. But what I was building up to say is that the couple times in each of those leagues that I have sat him, usually because I had somebody else I was excited to start. And I'm like, all right, I'll play it safe with Sandy Alcantra this week so that I can get

this other guy in. I regretted it the couple times that I sat him. Like he would go and have a good Sandy Alcondaa start. So he's kind of a, he's kind of a singularity with regard to this discussion because he is a presumed ace who two thirds of the way into the season still has an ERA over four. But that ERA is coming down with his eight shutout innings here against the Phillies on Tuesday. He now has a 245 ERA and his last seven starts. does Sandy Alcantra.

By the way, how fitting was it that he throws eight shut out and he's against the Phillies? And then the closer blows it. The new closer, one of the ones, one of the Marlins' big trade acquisitions blows the win for him. Carmic retribution for waiting this long to start making trades.

That's my thought. They get punished for one game. Hopefully things get better now. Who was making trades in June? The Marlins should have been. Back when they were actually a good team. Yeah. I don't know how many other teams were willing to trade in June,

even if the Marlins were. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. All right. I have no idea. Well, Scott, we'll go right back to your, oh, my goodness, gracious player of the night. All right.

Let's talk about Andrew Haney. A teeny, if you could tell. I don't know why I said it funny. But Andrew Haney, Hey. Six shutout innings against the white socks. 11 strikeouts against these white socks. He looked dominant, as Andrew Heaney has been known to do from time to time,

though it has been especially rare this season that he's done it. 11 strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 80 pitches. Seven came on the fastball. Eight came on the slider, which is interesting. It was a 47% whiff rate on that slider for this game, 47% versus 30% whiff rate on the slider for the season. And what also makes that interesting is Heaney's slider was down in velocity 1.6 miles per hour. So it was slower by about a mile per hour and a half, and yet it was much more effective in terms of generating whiffs and judging. by the final line here for Heaney.

Effectiveness all around. It was a more effective slider. And you may remember that Heaney's breakthrough with the Dodgers last year was driven by him changing his slider, making it, he was one of the pitchers with whom the term sweeper first became attached was Andrew Heaney. Sweeper, you know, a slower kind of slidder. that has more horizontal movement.

So I wonder if he, I wonder if there was a tweak to his slider in this start that was intentional and that helped him look more like his 2022 self. It is reminiscent of the change we saw with Reed Detmer's slider, similar drop in velocity about 1.5 miles per hour that saw him suddenly improve. Now, Dettmers has kind of fallen off in recent starts while still having that slower slider. So I don't know if that improvement is going to be longstanding for him. But I do think for a random start in August, there are enough interesting things to consider here with Andrew Heaney that it's worth pointing out.

I will also point out one change that he's made. Last year, he was basically just forcing fastball and slider. You know, he threw the change of about 5% of the time. This season has been up to 18%. And typically, you throw the change up more to neutralize the platoon advantage that right-handed hitters have, but he hasn't really been any better against righties this season than he was last year. So I don't know how much that was actually helping. His change-up has been by pretty much every metric, his worst pitch.

And so I do think. the fact that he threw it 8% of the time, which is less than half as often as he typically throws it. I don't know if that's an explanation for why he was better in this one, but it's, it makes sense, given that that's been such a weak pitch for him. Scott, my only rebuttal to your slider analysis, I do think it's interesting and worth noting that the velocity was down and obviously it was much better in this one, but he averaged 80.8 miles per hour on the slider in this start. And last year was 83 miles per hour. So I know he was kind of throwing it more sweeping and maybe it was slighter than it was slower than previous years

But yeah, I guess the velocity doesn't really line up with last year either so I don't know Yeah, and I look through his game log this year because you know there have been a few A few impressive starts like this from Pini this year to see if fluctuations and slider velocity matched up to performance and they did not really So I mean there's a lot more I could get into as I could with any player but we've already talked about heaney for eight minutes so right I thought it was time to cut it off he is 65% rostered looks like he's at the Oakland A's next week obviously things are changing vastly at

the moment right now with pitching staffs and lining pitchers up but he is part of a group of waiver wire pitchers we'll get to in just a little bit Chris you're oh my goodness gracious player of the night want sucko I think I think we can officially retire the Juan Soco moniker. He had an 800 OPS in April and earned the Wands Soco Soco moniker, but Wonsetto had two home runs today. He has just been absolutely absurd. Basically since the start of March, I think, or sorry, start of May. He's had an 1100 OPS in May, 914 in June, 959 in July and opens up August with two home runs. He's been spectacular. for most of the season.

There is a contingent of baseball fans and fantasy baseball players who want Juan Soto to not be a good player. And unfortunately for you guys, he is very, very good. It's the same thing we did with Joey Votto like 14 years ago or whatever when people wanted him to be a different player than he was. There are things in Juan Soto's profile that can make him a less than elite fantasy option. I can grant that. He might be one of the three. best hitters in baseball and one of only like the 12 best hitters in fantasy baseball. That's fine.

He's still one of the 12 best hitters in fantasy baseball. If you took advantage of people overreacting to his slow start, congratulations. You are probably doing really well in fantasy baseball this year. And he might be one of the five or six best hitters in a points league. It's just in Roto, his stats don't translate as much because he doesn't really steal bases. But yeah, look, right now he's on pace for 30 home runs. This was actually before the two home runs. game. So entering Tuesday, Juan Soto was on pace for 30 homers, 91 runs, 97 RBI,

and nine steals. You know, if he was a little bit better in the month of April, those counting stats would look even better. He's probably, you know, up over 100 runs, up over 100 RBI since the start of May, batting 300. So he's looked a lot like Wonsoto, and, you know, we've had this recent report

that he's been dealing with a thumb injury, dating back to spring training as well. Oh, it's not a thumb. It's a middle finger, baby. Oh. fitting. They gave an MRI to his middle finger and he gave that MRI the middle finger.

Gosh. Because the results were not that impressive apparently. I do want to say that like when Juan Soto fever was at its highest, it was he hit he hit 351 in 2020.

He hit 313 in in 2021. So he looked like he was becoming a elite batting average guy. So the year before that 351 batting average, he hit 282, and this year his batting averages of what, around 275. 275 now. And it may be that that really high batting average is like his 80th, 90th percentile outcome,

and the 275 batting average is more like his 50th percentile outcome. And that's a really good 50th percentile outcome. but like to to further the idea that maybe in in five by five category leagues he's not a slam dunk first rounder well it looked like he was when he was going to hit 320 sure he only hits 280 okay maybe not sure what i think like what happens is i think like in one so does case he became the number one pick right, like going into the 2021 season, I think he was kind of maybe not the consensus number one pick,

but certainly a lot of people's number one player coming off that huge 2020, partial season. And so there's always a little bit of pushback when a player disappoints and maybe gets elevated a little higher than they should be. I'm fine granting that in a Roto League,

Guantoto might be more like a late first, early second round player. But like even that was a controversial statement in our comments. and Twitter mentions two months ago. So I just want to put that out there. Juan Soto's awesome. Manny Machado has also been a 45 homer pace

since the start of June. Give superstars the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, especially for guys that have done it for, you know, a handful of years or even more in the case of Manny Machado. Like Machado, yeah. Yeah, like since he's returned from the IL, he's basically been Manny Machado. He's been amazing.

Oh my goodness gracious offense of the night. The Cubs, they put up 20 runs on 21 hits in a huge divisional matchup against the Cincinnati Reds. Few standout performers in that game. Dansby Swanson went two for four with a double dong. He had five RBI and is up to 15 home runs on the season, even with an IL stint in there.

And 10 games since returning from the IL, Danzby Swanson batting 333 with five home runs. So it could be a big second half here for him. Cody Bellinger just continues to do it. He's doing it. Three for six with a sock and a shoe, his 16th home run, his 13th steal of the season. Mike Talkman, two for three with two walks, a sock, and a shoe.

The sockman, sixth home run, fourth steel in 58 games. He's 10% rostered, and Jamer Candelario had a nice debut here with the Cubs, four for five with a double and two runs scored. He's got the only player that's available here is Mike Talkman, and he's Mike Talkman. So is there anything to see here? Is it like 15 team, five outfielder leagues,

is even worth rostering there? Probably not. No, I mean, there's just not. There's just, he hits high in the lineup. He gets on base at a nice rate, and that's basically it. It's, it's, it's,

it's, in terms of five by five categories, leagues, it's some hollow, it's a hollow on base percentage for Mike Talkman. So I would not, concerned myself with him. I do want to point out a couple things here.

Just when he thought Bellinger might be slowing down 3 for 13 in his previous four games. He has this monster performance 3 for 6 with a home run and stolen base. Dansby Swanson, even with the recent time on the IL, up to 15 home runs

now. Pretty good. And finally, Candelario did not start at 3rd like we expected. He started at first base, which means Matt Mervis might have to continue to bite his time in the minors,

which is unfortunate. And I'm not saying, no, just because Candelaria started at first base in his Cubs debut, doesn't mean that's the only position he's going to play for them. Who started at third? Nick is magical. Yeah, the magical. Oh, okay.

The box score has him at second base, but I think he got moved there later on. Yeah. Yeah. And to be fair, I think part of the reason I was expecting Matt Mervis to return soon is because I was expecting the Cubs to sell at the deadline and they didn't. And so they may not want to, they may not want to let him sink or swim while they're still in the middle of the playoff hunt. It's fair enough. But I was discouraged to see Candelario at first base as somebody who wants to see Mervis come back. up and hopefully turn into something. I will also mention, because I just thought of this today, I don't know why I was under the impression Jamer Candelario had been out of Detroit for a couple years now. This was his first.

This is his first year out of Detroit. Yeah, and Detroit is a very, very tough place to hit. A very tough place to hit. One of the most suppressive offensive environments in baseball, we saw what happened to Nick Castion. when he got out of there. And so I wonder, I wonder if there may be more to this season for Candelaria than I've been giving credit for.

Yeah, like he is, I was looking this up the other day when he got traded. His OPS this season is 128. That's actually the second highest of his career. 2020 is the highest. So we can just say this is the best of his career. His overall OPS Plus since 2020 is like 115. which is solidly above average, which I was surprised by.

But then it's again, you put up a 795 OPS in Detroit in 2021. That's a 121 OPS plus. So, yeah, that there is something to, you know, an 850 OPS in Washington or an 830, whatever, probably looking more like a 775 OPS in Detroit, you know. Yeah. And I say this in part because when we were talking when he got. Frank and I were that he's a top 10 third basement in points leagues right now. And what if his numbers are going to regress?

I think there is room for both the batting average and the home run rate to regress based on his track record, based on what the stat cast data shows. But it's not so far outside the norm to think it absolutely will regress for Jamer Candelario. I don't know. I'm a bit torn on him. I would not bet on him being a top 10 third basement in points league's the rest of the way, but it's not so far-fetched either. And it's a pretty good part too, right? In Wrigley Field, too. So that in conjunction with the lineup that's, you know, it's kind of a pesky lineup. They have guys that have performed really well this year. So we'll see. Jamer Candelario up to 78% rostered. This was his first start

at first base to season. So he will need at least four more to gain that eligibility. in CBS, but perhaps he will with the Chicago Cubs. Who was the poor pitcher for the Reds in this one? Ben lively. He allowed 13 earned runs over four innings pitched. His ERA jumped up to 5.20 on the season. That's just like, man, sometimes regression catches you all. Like, we've had debates on this podcast about like the concept of like, are you do is a player who's doing really, really well as he do for a cold streak?

And like, no, that's not how it works. But yeah, Ben Lively's probably more like a 5 ERA pitcher than the guy he's been this season. And suddenly one start later, that's what he is. Sometimes it works out that way. What do you think the hitter equivalent is of this, Chris? Is it like going seven straight games without a hit or something? Yeah, like a three homer game, something like that. I mean, it's hard to do anything this late in the season that rises your ERA a run and a half.

Right. Which is basically what happened with Ben lively. Takes a special combination of ineptitude and confidence from your manager to leave you in for four innings to wear it when you're struggling like that. It was also a big day of offense for the Orioles who put up 13 runs on 16 hits. Ryan Mountcastle stays hot. He went three for four with two doubles, a walk, three runs, and two RBI. He had four hard hits in this game, including two, over 108 miles. per hour exit velocity. Anthony Santander went three for four with his 19th home run. It was a grand slam.

He also had four hard hits in this game. And Gunner Henderson also stays hot three for five with his 18th home run for RBI. Ryan Mountcastle up to 76% rostered. And kind of wish we could have gotten him out of Baltimore. Yeah, I mean, he is someone who the past two years, his quality of contact has been elite. Now, it kind of stinks that he has that. big cutout piece in left field in Camden, but, you know, even with that lineup around him, it might not matter. I mean, these counting stats, if he's batting, you know, second or third in this lineup, might be really, really good for Ryan Mouncastle.

Yeah, especially since it's a weak position. And I guess that's worth mentioning with Candelario, too. If he is going to play first base primarily for the Cubs, then he'll pick up eligibility there. And that'll make him even more useful. But back to Moucassel. Yeah. He's been a player I've had a hard time with from the beginning because he is not a disciplined hitter at all,

and I really dislike that quality in hitters. And once he started putting up these Primo Exa Velocities, Baltimore Camden Yards became one of the most power suppressing parks for a right-handed hitter. But first base being in the state it's in, I see plenty of views for Mountcastle. even in leagues that don't have the extra corner infield spot. I was looking at, you know,

yesterday, Scott, we said we would drop Rizzo for Ryan Malkassel. Other names that are rostered in more leagues, Andrew Vaughn, I think I would make that swap. Yes. He's 88% rostered. Ty France, 84% rostered. Easily.

Easily. He's been horrible. And, you know, I guess Hunter Renfro is kind of a similar player to Ryan Moucassel, but I might make that swap. Yeah. To put some context on all the stuff that we've talked about, over the past two seasons. Ryan Mountcastle has underperformed

as expected Wobo by 45 points. That is the highest mark in the majors amongst anyone with at least 500 plate appearances. He looks like a context neutral, I would say at least fringe All-Star kind of player. And he's just, it's going to be really hard for him to be that in Baltimore. I think he can be a 250, 22 homer,

like a, I don't know, a Ryan McMahon type and, you know, putting two context neutral extremes out there. I think he could be that kind of player. I think he could be a lot more than that in a different environment. You said 22 home runs. That's exactly what he hit last year.

His expected home runs were 27. So, you know, with that new deep wall in left field in Camden, it really has suppressed some power here for Ryan. Castle, unfortunately. Let's take our first break. When we return, we'll get into some Waverwire pitchers. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back and a quick reminder to download and follow our five-minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball today in five, wherever you're listening to this podcast. We take the biggest news, notes, performers of the day. We talk about it

in just five minutes every single day. So you can listen to that in addition to our full-length podcast here on Fantasy Baseball today. Let's talk waiver wire pitchers. Scott, you mentioned the biggest standout of the night, Andrew Heaney with his 11 strikeouts. A few other names, Gavin Williams. He was only solid at the Houston Astros, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts, but his velocity was up a crazy amount across the board. I mean, fastball was up over one mile per hour, slider up three miles per hour, curve up two and a half miles per hour. I thought it was pretty interesting on Gavin Williams. Jose Cantana, back-to-back quality starts. He was at the Royals, six and two-thirds innings, three runs, two strikeouts.

there. Miles Michaelis pitched well against the twins, though most pitchers do that. Seven innings, three runs, two of those earned with seven strikeouts. And Johan Oviedo takes advantage of a strong matchup against the Tigers, seven innings, one run, five strikeouts for him. Scott, we've got five names here. Oviedo, Michaelis, Kentana, Gavin Williams, and Andrew Heaney, who are your three favorites of that group? My three favorites, I will preface this by saying, Andrew Heaney has more upside than most of the pitchers on this list, although Gavin Williams, I would say. I'm not going to put Heaney among my three favorites because it's August

and I have no reason to trust him. So I will say my top three from this list are, ah, crap, he probably is going to end up third. Gavin Williams, Miles, Michaelis, and Andrew Heaney. So I think Jose Cantana can become a part of the glob, and I mean that in a good way, because clearly he doesn't have a ton of upside. So all a pitcher of his standing can aim for is being part of the glob.

But the real issue for him is, will he be able to work six innings consistently enough that you can stomach the bad starts when they come? And I have a real question about that for Cantana, given his performance the last couple of years. years, but in his last two starts, he has managed to go six plus, and that's a good sign. Chris, would you take Nick Pavetta and Seth Lugo? Those were the two names Scott and I spoke about yesterday, Povetta coming off a double-digit strikeout start and Seth Lugo. We consistently

talk about how under-roastered he is in fantasy. Would you take both of those names ahead of all of the five that I just mentioned here? Yeah, I mean, Scott said it's August and he can't trust Andrew he need to put it together. It's the August of Nick Povetta's career. And I have strong doubts that he will be able to sustain his recent performance. We've seen stretches like this from him before. And it has never proven even remotely sustainable. I think I'd rather have Seth Lugo than any of the guys we're talking about.

That's fair. I might put Povetta second, but that's more an illustration of my lack of faith in the rest them. But if I have Gavin Williams and Nick Povetta's out there, I'm not dropping Gavin Williams for him. I'm still chasing the upside for that one. Yeah. I agree with all of that.

I do want to say, though, for Povetta, who obviously didn't pitch today, but, you know, he had the 10 strikeouts and seven innings at Seattle Monday. And, you know, his two longest outings recently, 10 strikeouts at seven innings, 13 strikeouts and six no hit innings. So he's been doing some very impressive things, even when he's extended to a full starter's workload. Because it's August, there is only so much you can reasonably expect to find on the waiver wire.

And it's hard to imagine you're going to find anything more enticing than that. Take Seth Lugo over him, fair enough. Take Gavin Williams over him. enough. But if you're looking to hit a home run off the waiver wire in August, I don't think you can afford to ignore a guy who in his last seven appearances has a 201 ERA 070 whip 14.4K per 9, especially when the two longest of those appearances have arguably been the most impressive of all. Speaking of home runs, we've got to talk about Bryce Miller because he is allowing a lot of home runs right now. Back-to-back starts, allowing.

six earned runs. It's actually the fourth time this season he is allowed six or more runs in a start and the ERA jumps to 4.35. He still does have a great whip at 104 but that's because he doesn't walk anyone. He gives up a lot of fly ball. So not a lot of hits, but when he does give up hits, they're usually home runs. He's 90% rostered. Chris, would you drop Bryce Miller for any of the names we just mentioned? That's seven pitchers, five from today and the two from yesterday. I don't think so. I struggle. I've struggled with Bryce Miller from when he had the historic start.

I'm struggling with him now that he's really struggling because he was never as good as his historic start. He's probably not this bad. What's interesting is he's mixing his pitches up a lot more than he did early on. And it's, I don't know if you can say it's leading to struggles because his fastball got hit really hard today too. 96.6 mile per hour, average X velocity on 10 balls and play. That's really bad for a fast ball. That's really bad for any pitch.

So I don't know if you can say the fact that he's throwing his slider and change up more is leading to his struggles as much as they are coinciding with. They're not solving his struggles. And I think it's an interesting dilemma because I think Bryce Miller, as currently constructed, might be a better pitcher throwing 75% of his pitches for fastball. even though I think it's probably probably means he's more like a four ERA pitcher if he does that. Whereas figuring out how to throw the slider and how to throw the change up

and making those pitches effective probably gives him a higher ceiling in the long term. Might make him a worse pitcher right now. So it's a really interesting situation of trying to balance those things. But there was the quote early on where I'm only throwing my fastball because I haven't needed any of my other pitches. Turns out it wasn't necessarily a choice, and he was just doing some bravado. But I still think there's a ton of upside.

He's clearly super talented. The fastball is a very, very good pitch, and it's just a question of figuring out how to make probably the slider work. And I would rather roll the dice, especially if I don't need a starter right now. I would rather roll the dice on him. him than any of the other guys we mentioned. If I need a starter, give me Seth Lugo over him.

I was going to say, if there's one, I might drop Bryce Miller for Seth Lugo. I think that's probably the closest one on the list. Two other names in deeper leagues. One in deep leagues, one in the deepest of leagues. Junjinn Riu made his debut. Not great. Just wanted to read off his line. Five innings, nine hits, four runs aloud up against the Baltimore Orioles.

And get ready for this one. Jesse Shultons, getting a chance to start for the White Sox. turns in his first quality start of his career at the Texas Rangers. It's impressive. You know, it's tough matchup, tough place to pitch. Six innings, one run, six strikeouts for him. Scott, anything here on Reuse debut and Jesse Shulton's. Reused velocity seemed fine. It seemed pretty much like the last time we saw him.

So that gives me some hope that maybe he could put something together. I'm not optimistic. I would, I've not made him a hundred. high priority off the waiver wire and this start certainly isn't going to change that but there's a chance i'm saying there's a chance for young jinru you as for shultons he was one of two pitchers who i feel like just had just took advantage of the element of surprise today like probably the whole world found out including himself found out he was making a major league start today and i don't even know if that's true i don't know when the white socks announced him but i did not

expect to see the name Shultans when I looked at the White Sox box score today. I did not expect to see the name Pedro Avila, right? Or was it Avila? I think it was Avila. A Vila. Pedro Avila when I looked at the Padres box score today. A Vila. Pedro Avila and Jesse Shultans.

I did not expect to see either of those names in the box score today. They both put up terrific stat lines. I go look at their minor league track records. I am greatly underwound. And I think we can ignore them. All right. We spoke about Sandy Alcantara a bit at the top. Back-to-back starts of at least eight innings.

He faced the Phillies. Eight shutout with five strikeouts there. Still did allow nine hard hits in this game. Slider velocity up nearly two miles per hour in this start. Chris, did you have anything else you wanted to add on Sandy's back-to-back strong starts? He's throwing his sinker and his fastball, his foreseamer a little less. I think the sinker's been part of his problem, especially against lefties. So I don't think that's a bad thing.

But no, I haven't had a good explanation for why he struggled. I don't have a good explanation for why he's been good the last two starts. I just expect him to be good moving forward. All right, what to do with these three outfielders getting questions on George Springer, Tiaska Hernandez, and Alex Verdugo. Springer went 0-4 with two strikeouts on Tuesday and is down to a 246 batting average. and a 694 OPS on the season. Still does have 13 home runs and 13 steals.

Still 100% rostered. He has been benched in 14% of CBS leagues. Scott, do you think this is just a cold stretch? Is it just a down season? Is George Springer getting old? He's 33 years old now. But it's been a disappointing year. Yeah, it has.

And I'm looking at how, what is, where he actually actually is in terms of production pretty high I'm surprised to hear how low his OPS is a sub 700 OPS because he has been a pretty productive fantasy player this year I'm just looking at total fantasy points he's right between Jake Frey and Nick Castellanos

who are two players I think you know Frey's got the platoon thing going on but otherwise people are pretty happy starting those two so should they be happy to start Springer as Well, I would think so. It's certainly not the sort of stat line we've come to expect from Springer over the years. I do think there may be a couple things at play here. One is that Toronto has become a surprisingly difficult place to hit.

This is especially true for left-handed batters, which Springer isn't. But I think it might help explain what's going on with Vladimir Guerrero, too. What's gone on with him for the past couple years, actually. it's sort of like Camden Yards used to have a reputation as being a launching pad. It didn't make the sort of configuration change, exaggerated configuration changes that the Orioles did to Camden Yards. But for whatever reason, it's just not playing like a hitters park anymore and instead going the other way. The other thing that might be happening for George Springer is for all his power production over the years, he wasn't, he isn't a guy who's made high quality contact.

It's been sort of like Chris Bryant, where he's delivered the home run totals of a slugger, but doesn't really have the exit velocities to back it up. And I just wonder in a post-juice ball league, whatever that even means anymore, because I know it's hard to define exactly what has started when and what has ended when. The ball doesn't carry as well as it did

for most of George Springer's prime. I think it's fair to say. And is that catching up to him now? Maybe. He's also not pulling the ball the same way he used to, especially last season. But like a 745 OPS would be a disappointing outcome for George Springer, but we probably wouldn't be talking about dropping him.

And that's what his OPS was nine games ago. He's been hitless for eight straight games. And that's really bad. That hurts your numbers. I'm not downplaying the pain that that has caused. you fantasy baseball players. It is just to say that he's in a really, really

cold streak right now, and that is exaggerating his struggles overall. Chris, we just figured it out. This is the Spider-Man meme of Ben Lively giving up 13 runs for a pitcher. Is George Springer going hitless for eight straight games? And this is where we're at. A

sub-250 batting average, a sub-700 OPS. I was going to say Randy a Rosa Rain is July, but yeah. Yeah, Springer hit like one. 80 in July, so same difference. Yeah. Teoscar Hernandez was out of the lineup Tuesday for the Mariners and downseason for him as well.

In terms of home runs and counting stats, it doesn't look so bad. 16 home runs, 59 RBI, 5 steals, but 238 batting average, 694 OPS, a 32% strikeout rate for Teasca Hernandez. He's still 94% rostered, 75% started. Chris, your thoughts on Teoscar? I mean, we're getting questions whether or not to drop him.

What do you think? I think this is a more clear example of a guy being in decline than George Springer. And I think part of that's just even though Teoscar Hernandez is a little younger, he's got a much more volatile, an inherently volatile skill set because he strikes out. A lot even before it spiked to 32% this season. He's really, really struggling with breaking balls in particular this year. That's kind of always been an issue for him,

but he's not making up for it. in other ways. He's underperforming his expected stats, but he's also, his expected stats are the worst they've been since 2019. So I don't think we can just say there's bad luck here. I think this is a more clear example

and I think his defensive numbers have really tanked as well. So that suggests to me that there's just an overall decline here for Tiaska Hernandez. Would you drop Tiaska Hernandez for any of Lars Neupar, Chas McCormick, Marcelo Zuna? I wouldn't think so.

Maybe Ozuna in a Roto league, just because he's giving you the kind of production you hope for from Teoscar Hernandez, at least as a hitter. But I'm not super compelled to make that move. In a points league, I might do it for Newpar. He had a really good July. Sure.

I'd do it for any of them in a points league. A three outfielder league, I feel like outfielers are so interchangeable. And I don't think Teosker Hernandez in August you know, deserves to be regarded as more than like an Ozuna level bat based on how he's performed this year.

Last name on the list is Alex Verdugo who actually went one for three with his eighth home run on Tuesday. But that's exactly it. His eighth home run on Tuesday. He got off to a great start, but he's kind of slowed down and he's back to being Alex Verdugo.

Was awful in July, 151 batting average with a 479 OPS. Scott, are you keeping the faith on Verdugo? who typically is a very good pointsly player or is it time to maybe move on to some of those other names, Lars Neupar, Chas McCormick types. Yeah, I'd swap him out for the high hand. I'd be fine with that.

I don't think the upside is high enough for him to get, for you to be especially patient with him, especially at this point in the season. I couldn't imagine dropping him in a five outfielder league. That probably goes without saying, just because you have to go so much deeper into the outfield pool. But in the typical five outfields league, you're talking about a roto league,

and that's Verdugo's lesser format anyway. All right, well, let's take our final break. And when we return, I don't know how I did this, but I haven't read the news yet. And we're 45 minutes in. So we'll do that right after this. Welcome back. Let's hit the news and notes. Aaron Judge was at DH Tuesday because he's managing soreness in his toe.

And some people have asked us about this on Twitter. Is there a chance you think the Yankee shut down Judge early if they completely fall out of But there's a chance. These things happen sometimes in September. That's why some leagues like to end before September. I don't endorse that, but other people would. I think even more than the Yankee shutting him down, he might just re-injure himself.

I mean, this has been a pretty big issue, and it sounds like he needs to have surgery in the off-season for this toe injury as well. So it might just get to the point where it's just, the pain is too much, and he just has to go back on the IL. So we'll see, but it doesn't sound great right now for Aaron Judge. Boba Chet's MRI revealed inflammation in his right knee and is listed as day-to-day. It could have been much worse, so it's kind of a weird way to phrase that, but I guess thank your lucky stars if you have Boba Chet on your fantasy team.

Cedric Mullins is expected to rejoin the Orioles in 10 to 14 days. Brendan Donovan will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn flexor in his right arm. Tommy Edmund was reinstated as the corresponding move. Derek Gould, who covers the Cardinals for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, confirmed our suspicions earlier on our trade deadline special. Regarding top prospect, Mason Wynn, it sounds like the Cardinals will wait until late August to promote Wynn in order to preserve his rookie status for 2024.

So to be clear, Derek Gould is just speculating, right? There's no way he could possibly know that, because if the Cardinals were to say that, they would have... They're in trouble. They would have, they would have to answer to someone for that. I mean, yeah. I don't know if there's ever been a successful service time grievance filed, even in the most obvious situations.

Chris Bryant, for instance, failed his, which was. Oh, no, I thought he failed? I thought he, I thought his, I thought it was successful. I don't know. It's not relevant. Do we all have to look it up? I don't know. The Cubs said, they needed time to do.

Ruled in the Cubs favor. Okay, you're right. You're right. All right, well, I'm happy we figured that out. And hopefully, the Cardinals don't get in trouble. But the point is, we'll probably see Mason win at some point this season. Max Scherzer will make his Rangers debut Thursday against the White Sox. Jordan Montgomery will make his Rangers debut Friday against the Marlins.

Michael Lorenzen will make his Phillies debut Thursday at the Marlins. And Aaron Savali will make his Ray's debut Saturday against the Tigers. all four with pretty soft landings with their new teams. Wait, why haven't we talked about the trades, Frank? Didn't you know there were a bunch of trades happening? It was the trade deadline? Like, how are we 49 minutes in? And we haven't addressed a single trade.

That's a good point. It's probably something the host should bring up and mention. We did do an entire podcast on all the trades. So if you want to check that out, it's in your podcast feed. It's on YouTube. It's nearly an hour long of us breaking down all the trades. Justin Verlander, Lorenzen, everything else that happened here on Tuesday, so go check that out.

I thought I'd dream that. Sorry. You might be. It's been a long season. It's been a very long day, Scott. Red Sox manager, Alex Cora, indicated, indicated Tuesday that Trevor's story is not a lock to be reinstated from the IL this weekend. He did not appear to suffer a setback, but it sounds like they're just being overly cautious. Josh Nailer was scratched from the lineup due to right side tightness. Justin Turner out of the lineup with a left heel contusion. J.C. Villumuto held out with a cut on his right hand. J.D. Martinez, also out of

the lineup with left hamstring tightness and brandon nimmo scratched with quad tightness mess manager buck show walter said starling martay could be activated on wednesday marty participated in a full round of pregame batting practice on tuesday and is finally symptom free following a string of migraine headaches griffin canning was placed in the aisle with right calf tightness kbrien hayes was reinstated but was not in the pirates lineup on tuesday which kind of weird in my opinion G. Juan Bay began a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. He's been out since July 2nd with a left ankle injury. Tyler McGill and David Peterson are likely to rejoin the Mets rotation

to replace Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. That's a big shoes to fill, I guess. The Mariners wasted no time getting their new additions in the lineup. Dominic Canzon started in right field and Josh Rojas started at second base. Colton Wong was DFAed as a result. A.J. Pollack was activated by the Giants. Marco Luciano was optioned back to AAA, and this was pretty interesting.

MLB made a scoring change in the July 16th Red Sox Cubs game. Connor Wong's double in the fifth has been changed to a two-base error on Nico Horner, and as a result, five runs that were charged to Justin Steele in the inning are now all unearned. So his ERA went from 287 to 246 entering his start on Tuesday. And Frank, honestly, if you had a close matchup in head to points leagues, you might want to go back and check because it could change some things. So, well, do you do you know that? Do you know how that's supposed to work? No, I mean, I completely just made it up, but I assumed that it would be changed. I don't know for sure for certain. Oh, man. Yeah, unfortunately, I don't have any of my roto league. So I'm not going to benefit from this one. I do have him in a points league.

Maybe I'll maybe I'll check that one and raise a ruckus. Somebody's going to raise a ruckus over this. I can be sure that. I'm too lazy for that. I mean, steel is liable to regress even harder now. 246E R.A. Whof. Sell high.

So high. Scout way. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here. Let's talk about Carlos Rodon. More struggles with the control. I beat Scott in the one league where I've got Justin Steele in a points league. So it's not worth fighting over. There you go.

I beat him bad too. It was like a 60 point. I don't want to talk about it. There's a bit more. Let's talk about Carlos Ordone. Struggled with control once again, facing Tampa Bay. Oh man, remember the race struggling so much in July. All they needed to do was faced the lowly New York Yankees.

Carlos Rod allowed four runs over four innings pitched. He allowed four walks and two home runs. I don't care what pitcher you are. If you walk four and you give up two home runs, chances are you are not going to be a successful pitcher. He has failed to complete six innings in any of his five starts. Chris, you and I spoke extensively about Carlos Rodon last week, but Scott, you haven't had the chance to opine your thoughts on the Carlos Rodon struggles.

Well, he obviously hasn't been very good. I didn't feel like he had been bad enough that with two starts upcoming this week, you should sit on. I felt like he was right around the target, and so hopefully that meant he was about to hit the target. He did it in this start, obviously, and we'll see how the next one goes. But now that the two-star week is hopefully in our rearview mirror and the next one isn't coming up for a while, I think I'm to the point where I'm just going to sit Rodon until he looks like Rodon again. Well, bad news because he has to face the Astros lineup this weekend with Jose Altova, Yurton Alvarez back in there, and everybody else in that Astros line.

I mean, that means he's going to strike out 10 and six innings. You know that. I hope you're right, because I start. at him in a few spots and I don't really have a choice right now. So let's go, Carlos Rodan. Trey Turner, we haven't talked about in a while, probably since our, I don't know, two-round redraft for the rest of the season and continues to be a disaster. O'4-4 with two strikeouts on Tuesday.

He's down to a 240 batting average, currently on pace for 15 home runs and 32 steals, only 52 RBI as well. First year of a mega deal in a big city, maybe that means we buy low next year if, you know, we're getting any kind of discount. But Chris, I was thinking about this. Trey Turner is probably the biggest early round bus this year, right? I don't really think it's close. Yeah, I think that's pretty fair to say.

He had a decent June and looked like he may be starting to turn things around, stole 11 bases in that month, hit three home runs, hit 279, and July was terrible. He had three steals. He hit 218. So any momentum there is gone. I don't really have much positive to point to. He's underperformed his expected stats a little, but he's also posting the worst expected stats of his career.

So it's not like that's a real reason for optimism. I have to believe that he'll bounce back at some point, whether it's in August or September or in 2024, but I can't give you a good reason for it, except that it's Trey Turner. Yeah, I was actually just, I did a Dynasty Stockwatch, which I try to do once a month during the season,

five risers, five prospect risers, and then five fallers. Trey Turner was among my five fallers for the one I just wrote Monday. I think he holds, Corey Seeger holds more dynasty value than him right now.

Francisco Lindor, certainly like a Bobby Witt. And I know we're not necessarily talking Dynasty, we're talking, next year. It's a little early to have that conversation because obviously August and September could change things. But I think what we have to consider with Trey Turner is, okay, maybe he's not the 240 hitter he's been so far. I'm skeptical that he's that bad.

But is he going to hit 320 again? Or is he, you know, when you look at his chase rate going up, his whiff rate going up, his in-zone contact rate going up, has he lost some of that quick twitch that made him so valuable in his 20s now that he's into his 30s. And will that make him more like a baseline 270 hitter? Because if he's a baseline 270 to 280 hitter, let's say, what was doing a lot of the heavy lifting for Trey Turner to make him a perennial first round pick was the stolen bases. And he's still a great base stealer,

but there are so many good base dealers now that if he is declining 40 to 50 points in batting average, and by the way, it's been more like 80 points in batting average this year. I just don't know how special he is anymore. I'm not saying he's not an early round pick, but I'm saying he's probably not a top five shortstop. I think that he has put a lot of pressure on himself this year with this big contract and chasing pitches.

I think he's just trying to do more than maybe he's capable of, and the strikeout rate has gone up. He's still extremely fast. Ninety ninth percentile sprint speed could be organizational philosophy, but I think a big reason for the steals being down. A sub-300 OBP, I mean, 296 OBP at this point for Trey Turner. That's really bad. So, man, he's going to be a confounding player, too, to analyze this offseason.

Let's talk about some pitching leftovers here. Lance Lynn made his Dodger debut, and he allowed three more home runs. Thankfully, they were all solo shots. He went seven innings, three runs allowed, seven strikeouts with 16 swinging strikes. back to his roots. Pure four-seam fastball, 69% usage in this start. The problem is,

what happens when he faces a real offense, right? He gives up three home runs against the Oakland Aids. It's pretty scary stuff. A couple of their names here, Spencer Strider, nine strikeouts,

31 swinging strikes. That was his third game with 30 or more swinging strikes this season. Crazy stuff. Zach Eflin, pitches well following his recent knee scare. He was at the Yankees,

six shutout, with five strikeouts. Kyle Braddish, seven innings, three runs, seven strikeouts at Toronto, and Pablo Lopez turned in a quality start

at the Cardinals, six innings, one run, five strikeouts in that one. Lots of names here, Chris, you get the first go at it. Pablo Lopez, Kyle Braddish,

Zach Eflin, Strider, and Lance Lynn's debut. So, Strider, uh, set a major league record for fewest innings with 200 strikeouts.

Did you like to know whose record he broke? Randy Johnson. Scott, would you like to guess? I wasn't listening. Spencer Strider's record is who he broke last season. Makes sense.

That was fun. Lance Lynn, there was a lot of speculation about the, on Twitter, about the change in pitch mix. Like you said, more forcing fast balls, more curve balls.

Lance Lynn does not sound like it was a conscious decision or something that the Dodgers directed him to, quote, there's going to be games where the cutter, sinker are going to be more something that we have to do to get them off the four-seem of breaking ball. That's just part of pitching. Every game's different.

I think you can be optimistic about this if you want. And if you were leaning towards cutting Lance Lynn, maybe you don't. But like you said, the fact that he gave up three home runs against the A's, I think he was pretty lucky to only give up three earned runs and seven innings given that. So I think it's still same Lance Lynn. There's an outcome where he's really useful the rest of the way, but it's certainly not the most likely outcome. Some quick hitting leftovers.

Michael Harris went two for three with a double dong. He had three hard hits in this game. And since the start of June, 49 games now, Michael Harris batting 3.41 with nine home runs, eight steals, the problem. The counting stats have been very underwhelming, batting ninth in the Braz lineup. Francisco Alvarez went two for five with his catcher leading,

21st home run. He also hit second in the lineup, the first time he's done that since June 13th. And I hope that remains to be the case for Francisco Alvarez moving forward. Pete Alonzo went 2 for five with his 31st home run, a moonshot, 115.7 exit velocity, 429 feet. And in the second half, he's batting 271 with five homers and a 931 OPS. That'll do.

Scott, anything? I have a question for you. Go ahead. Maybe an hour and three minutes isn't the time for this question. But the term moonshot, I've heard it used in a variety of ways. Does it just mean a gargantuan home run of any kind, moonshot, or does it mean a particularly high, a home run that's hit particularly high, distance, irrelevant?

It's probably the latter, but it might be subjective. I'd like to know. Striking out the side, is that just striking out three batters regardless of what else happens in the inning, or is it striking out all three batters you face in the inning? I thought it was striking out the side is striking out every batter because there was someone pitched yesterday, Louis Severino on Sunday night, got three strikeouts in the first inning, give up what, four earned runs, six earned runs, something like that.

That is not striking out the side. Well, the other question is what is batting around? Is it getting to the 10th hitter? And I think that's it. But striking out the side is not just getting three strikes. I agree that if you say it's just getting three strikeouts, regardless of what happens, then it becomes not impressive to say he struck out the side.

Like, if you want that to be an impressive accomplishment, that has to be, okay, he struck out all three batters he faced this inning. But what is, what do you say when a pitcher has recorded the third out in the inning, leaving strikeouts out of it? He's just recorded the third out in the inning. You say side retired, right? Yeah. So literally isn't striking out the side, meaning,

No. Okay. Nope. I think it's a fair question. The call to the bullpen, a few updates here for the Marlins. David Robertson entered with a one-run lead. He gave up three runs, took his fourth blown save, and third loss of the season. For the Phillies, Craig Kimbrel was unavailable.

Sir Anthony Dominguez picked up his first save. For the Pirates, David Bednar struck out two for his 22nd. For the raise, Pete Fairbanks got the final out for his 14th save. For the Brewers, Devin Williams struck out one for his 27th save. For the Blue Jays, Jordan Hicks pitched in the ninth inning with the Blue Jays down 11 to 3. He did give up two runs. I just thought it was notable that they used him in the ninth inning. We'll see if it means anything.

For the twins, Yuan Duran gave up a solo homer but picked up his 18th save. For the Rangers, Will Smith struck out one for his 18th save. A roll his Chapman pitched in the eighth inning. And in the second half of the season, Will Smith has three of four saves so far for the Rangers. For the Royals, Carlos Hernandez got the top of the 10th inning. He gave up two runs. One of them earned, but wound up with the win because Brooks Raleigh came on in the bottom of the 10th with a two-run lead. He gave up three runs, two earned, took his third blown save and second loss of the season.

And worth noting at this point, Adamadovina was not traded. He was not. I think he pitched in the eighth inning in this game, if I remember correctly. So Brooks Raley has somebody lurking behind him. He has to look over his shoulder. I think so. Number zero, I'm out of you know. For the Padre, Josh Hader entered the ninth with one out, one on, and a three-run lead.

He got the final two outs for his 26th. For the Red Sox, Kenley Jansen picked up his 24th. And for the Giants, Camillo DeVal was unavailable. Sean Mania got the final two outs. for his first save of the year. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Wednesday. And...

Not great. Grayson Rodriguez at the Blue Jays. Cutter Crawford at the Mariners. And... McKenzie Gore versus the Brewers. I would not go with Gore. I would go with Grayson Rodriguez, Cutter Crawford.

And if I have to pick a third, Wade Miley. Gore's char is up. we decided last night, Chris. I don't understand. I mean, I get the reference. We arrived at that location through different paths. Because I said if Blake Snell was Charazard,

McKenzie Gore is Charmander to hit his Charzard. He's just like a lesser, lesser version of him. Yeah, I thought it worked because from what I understand, Pokemon Canon, Charmander evolved to Charmulean. and Charazard too quickly and Ash wasn't able to control. Yeah, he didn't have the badges ready for it. Right. So Charzard, obviously

extremely powerful. Yeah. But you just had no idea what he was going to do. And that's the same with McKinsey Corp. My initial reaction was very purred happily from Parks and Rec. Like, I don't know what you mean, but it had the cadence of a joke. Very good. I appreciated that. On Thursday, Michael Lorenz in Philly

made a reference to the Frank Gott. There you go. It does not. happen often. Michael Lorenzen in his Phillies debut at the Marlins. Johnny Quato versus the Phillies. Why am I reading all these names? I don't know why I'm doing that. If we're just looking at it, I guess I would say I don't I Brian Wu I think the only one maybe Lorenzen I think Lorenzen's fine at the Marlins yeah sure guys Brian Wu at the Angels don't love any of them

with it. All right. 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, and we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.