Fantasy Baseball Today - Fun with Rankings! Pablo Lopez Shutout & Matt Olson Pace Numbers (7/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 6, 2023

Brayan Bello might be pitching a little over his head (1:17). ... Pablo Lopez threw the first complete game of his career (7:20). ... Matt Olson is on fire (13:00). Should he be ranked as the #2 first baseman? ... Kodai Senga tied a season-high with 12 strikeouts (18:54). ... Has Elly De La Cruz surpassed other elite names (23:38)? ... Does Bryson Stott deserve more love (26:!5)? ... Jack Suwinski keeps doing Jack Suwinski things (29:52). ... News (39:47): Shohei Ohtani was back in the lineup. ... Seth Lugo has been underappreciated (44:45)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (51:11). 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. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, July 6th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by C-PT, Chris Paul Towers.

Today on the show, Pablo Lopez and Colise. Khodai Senga were amazing. Matt Olson is on fire. We'll have some fun with rankings. Talk about should we be moving these players up. How far up should they go? We'll talk about it and much more. 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. Let's jump in. Oh my goodness gracious. Chris, you are up. Sorry for giving out your entire government name.

But who would you like to start with? Oh my goodness gracious. Yeah, that is my birth name, Chris Paul Towers. And we are going to start with Brian Bejo because I think he's a really interesting player who I think a lot of people are very, very high on. And as a noted contrarian, I'm slightly less high on him than everyone else probably. I mean, I guess let's calibrate it, right? Brian Beaux had seven to earn runs.

innings against the Texas Rangers today, three strikeouts, no walks, eight hits, gave up one home run, but was terrific again. And he's been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past couple of months. Since May 1st, I believe he leads the American League in ERA now. He was second going into the start, but I think this one might have pulled him ahead. If not, he's still second, I suppose. He's been really good. And, you know, every time he goes out there right now, it feels.

like it's seven innings. I think he's pitched into the seventh inning, four or five straight starts now. He's just been outstanding. Yeah, five straight starts going back to his second start in the month of June. ERA close to two. And since May 1st, sorry.

And I'm really interested to know where you have Brian Bayo rank. So let's talk about it because I updated my infield rankings on Wednesday. I plan to update my outfield and starting pitcher ranks on Thursday. He's not an infielder. No, he is not.

So I haven't touched that yet. But he is just barely inside of my top 60. He's right around names like Kodi Senga, who we will talk about. Jordan Montgomery, Andrew Abbott, Braxton Garrett, Ranger Suarez, all pitchers that have been pretty good. Pretty solid pitchers. Yeah. Yeah, no.

That seems like a reasonable range. I moved him up to 45 tonight because I realized I hadn't moved him up in a in a while. That was, there are so many players. And sometimes there's just a guy that you just don't think of. And that was Brian Bayo for me. He was way too low before.

If you saw my rankings before around 11 o'clock tonight, ignore them. They lie to you. He is 45 right now in my rotor rankings, just ahead of Jordan Montgomery and Jose Burrios, just behind James Paxton. And that's an interesting range. Because Jordan Montgomery,

I don't think has a ton of upside, but he's very solid. He's been very solid for like a year straight now, really. Jose Barrios having a really nice bounce back season, but obviously not an ace. James Paxton, I think he's going to pitch like an ace as long as he does. It's just a question of how long he's able to stay out there. And then I've got Carlos Rodon right ahead of him,

who, again, I think he's going to pitch like an ace when he pitches. It's just a big question of how much he's going to be able to do that. Brian Beaux, The positives are obviously, I mean, the results have been really, really great. But he's had very good control. Eight walks and 33 innings in the month of June, nine walks in 27 innings in the month of May. So getting a little better there. No walks today.

Doing a very good job of getting a lot of ground balls. His ground ball rate is 57% right now. Hard hit rate, 41%. That's a little better than a little worse than league average. but it's not terrible because of how many ground balls he gets. The problem is he just doesn't get a lot of strikeouts. You know, Brian Bayo's strikeout rate for the season entering tonight when he only had three strikeouts was 21.8%.

League average, 2.1%. So right around average there. A little better than average with his walk rate, but not elite, good, but not elite. And you add it all up and it just, it feels like a good pitcher. I'm confident Brian Beow is a good pitcher. I feel like he's established. himself now as a high floor pitcher. The two-ish ERA since the start of May, the 304 ERA that he has this season, that's where I

start to, that's where I struggle, right? That that's where it's like, is this guy a burgeoning ace? I don't think so. I don't think he's a Sigh-Young candidate necessarily moving forward. I mean, right now he might be, but I think moving forward, he's more like his 385x ERA or his, I think his FIP is like 3-5. I think those are probably more indicative of who he's likely to be moving forward. And that's a very good pitcher, but it does, I think, open an opportunity to sell Brian Bay.

So like you said, if you just follow the underlying ERA estimators, FIP, XFIP, and XERA are all between 378 and 394 after this start. So they, based on that, there should be regression coming for the reasons you mentioned. He doesn't get as many strikeouts. He does give up a good amount of hard contact. Lots of ground balls. The Red Sox defense is, I think, last I saw, they're pretty bad. So I don't know how long he's going to be able to maintain turning all those hard hits into outs. But I agree.

I mean, look, if you could sell high on him, get like top 30 pitcher value, I think that's something I would look into doing. I just don't know. Like Brian Beow is in a household name, right? Are you going to be able to get that kind of value for him? I don't know if that's realistic. You can try. Sure. Because I do think there probably will be.

some regression with him. For example, if you could turn him into Christian Javier right now. Is that something you would do, Chris? I think so. I wish I could tell you with more confidence that I would, but I do have Christian Javier ranked ahead still. So yes, I would do that. All right. Well, this is all to say, Brian Beow is a good pitcher and we like him, right? It's not just sell because we think he's going to implode or anything like that. We just think he's, he might be slightly pitching over his head right now. I know if Scott was he, He probably would argue it because I know he likes Beio quite a bit in that Framber Valdez kind of mold of pitcher. And I think that's fair.

I think that's a very reasonable comp and something Brian Beio should be striving to become moving forward. Oh my goodness gracious for me is Pablo Lopez who had the line of the night. He was amazing. He threw the not only the first complete game of his career, the first shutout of his career. Those things obviously go hand in hand. a four hitter, zero walks allowed, a career high, 12 strikeouts for Pablo Lopez, 17 swinging trikes on 100 pitches, seven of those on the fastball. Five on the changeup, four on the curve.

Pretty much had everything working in this one. I guess we have to throw in the caveat that he was pitching against the Kansas City Royals, and they are one of the worst offenses in the league. I mean, just like maybe the best streaming option against right-handed pitching right now. They are just completely lost. Yes. I don't want to take too much away from Pablo Lopez. because it's not like everybody is throwing

complete game shutouts against the Royals right now. But he was really good in this one. He did change up his pitch mix a little bit, faded the sinker through a few more curb balls. Everything else was on par for Pablo Lopez. And Chris, I think Pablo Lopez is a good test study for trusting the process, right? If you just follow the underlying metrics all year long,

things like K to Walk Rate and Sierra and expected ERA, everything said that Pablo Lopez, was pretty unlucky this year. And obviously, a start like this, maybe it's something that can kind of get him back on track and have him pitching closer to those peripheral numbers. Rest of season, your latest thoughts on Pablo Lopez. Yeah, I mean, you know,

the one thing you would look at when you see the elevated ERA is, well, he must be getting hit hard to lead to that kind of production or number. And that's not the case at all. His expected Wobon contact is 355. that's consistently been, I think, an underrated aspect of Pablo Lopez's game. He's been 360, 367 the past four seasons, then 355 this season. So very good quality of contact numbers. And obviously, we've seen the leap in his strikeout rate.

So, yeah, I think he is someone that I've struggled with where to rank him because I don't want to get too aggressive given the somewhat ugly overall numbers. but I think he's probably a top 25-ish starting pitcher moving forward. Yeah, I was going to say, is this a start that should elevate Pablo Lopez ahead of names like Tyler Glassnow, George Kirby, Mitch Keller, guys like that? I've got him ahead of Kirby and Glass now already. He's 23 in my Roto rankings.

So it would be like the next move would be, I've got him above Shane Bieber, rest of season. I almost fell out of my shoes. You're right there. That was crazy. Oh, geez. For those watching on YouTube, you just got a nice little treat.

That was great. Oh, it was good. I've got Pablo Lopez 23. I just moved him. I moved him ahead of Shane Bieber today when in my rankings update. So the next step would be Nathan Avaldi,

Logan Webb, Joe Ryan. That's a tough group to break into. But I mean, the process says he's got a 310 XERA. And his FIP, I'm sure, in the same range. I haven't seen that one yet. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot to like. And I think he definitely belongs in that group. And I think, you know, like even someone like Joe Musgrove,

who I've got at 15, I think is a really interesting, you know, comparison point because I might feel a little better about Pablo Lopez than Joe Muskerve right now. Certainly if you use those metrics that we talked about, right? It's, you know, K to Walker, it's as old as time. but it's usually pretty tried and true when evaluating pitchers. And Pablo Lopez has been one of the best in baseball this year. There's a few names like him and Logan Gilbert where the Cato Walk has been really good this year, but it still hasn't translated to actual production. I say that in a week where both guys just threw a complete game shutouts.

So maybe that's starting to turn over a little bit. But yeah, the underlying metrics for both of those guys said that they should have been pitching much better than they have for most of this season. are going to get into more rankings in just a bit, but I do want to provide a programming update for next week, the All-Star Break. I mentioned we're going to be doing some fun things, and here's what we got lined up.

We're still going to be going live on YouTube Sunday through Thursday, I think on the days with the Home Run Derby, and the All-Star game will probably go a little bit earlier in the afternoon slash evening time. But here's what we got. Sunday night in MLB draft recap, first-year player draft rankings. For those who play in Dynasty,

I'll be doing that with the Welsh. That will be your Monday morning podcast. Monday evening. I'll do second half impact prospects. Which names do you need to know that can help us out in the months of July, August? You know, maybe some guys that could get called up in September as well. I'll also do that one with the Welsh. And that will be your Tuesday morning podcast on Tuesday evening.

This is a fun one. We always like to do it. Way too early, 2024 mock draft. We'll do the first, probably first two rounds. I think Scott will be back by then. And obviously, Chris, if you want to hop on for that, We could do all three of us and kind of talk that out and figure out where guys like Corby and Carol might go

in draft next season. So again, that's gonna be Tuesday evening, that's your Wednesday morning podcast. Wednesday night, we'll have second half, sleepers, breakouts and bust. That'll be your Thursday morning podcast, and then Thursday evening, a week 16 previewing next weekend, next next weekend, and the following week,

and we'll also take some mailback questions. That will be your Friday morning podcast. Let's get into fun with rest of season rankings. We already talked about Pablo Lopez and trying to talk things through and what his value should be rest of season. Top 25. Top 20 is starting pitcher for him. Let's talk about Matt Olson here, Chris. And you know, you're splitting hairs with a lot of the top five first baseman. We know they're all really good. It's just what level of good are they going to be or have they been? Matt Olson, he is on some kind of run right now, three for four with his 29th home run on Wednesday.

He trails only Shohei Otani. I don't know why Matt Olson wasn't. in the home run derby. I don't know if he was asked, but it seems like something, he's never been in it, right? I'm not making that up, right? I don't think so. It feels like something he'd be really good at.

Why hasn't Matt Elton in the home run? Real hard. Yeah, I just found that very weird. Anyway, he was dropped down to fifth in the Braves lineup on June 15th, Matt Olson was, and since then he has 11 homers in 18 games since. And he did move back up into the cleanup

I think around June 23rd, so this hasn't all been in the fifth spot in the lineup. But I think it's something that maybe lit a fire under Matt Olson. And he's just quietly doing his thing. He's batting 254, obviously in the middle of that lineup. 68 runs scored 70 RBI for Matt Olson. He is the sixth overall player in Roto. Not first baseman. Player, sixth overall player in Roto.

That was before Wednesday. He was the fifth best hitter and head-to-head points before Wednesday. So Chris, I say all this. and that I kind of feel like Matt Olson should be ranked as the number two first baseman behind only Freddie Freeman. Your thoughts? I think there's a reasonably reasonable case to be made there. He's number four for me. So I've got him ahead of Pete Alonzo, but behind Paul Goldschman, Vladimir Guerrero. But all those guys are really, really close. Freddie Freeman, I think is a clear number one because it's more broad skill set. The thing with Olson is we've always known that he is

an elite two category player and when things work out right, an elite three category player, right? Like he's going to drive in 100 runs. He's going to score 100 runs. He's going to hit 35 home runs plus. Well, he's already got 29. So I think we're probably going to get a career high in home runs for Matt Olson.

His career high is 39. He could get 50 this year. I mean, that's the pace right now. But also it's because this Braves lineup is so ridiculous right now. now, he's also on pace for like 120 runs and 120 RBI. I mean, if he plays 160 games, that's the pace we're talking about right now. I'm pretty sure, which is just, it's stupid the kind of season that this team is having. And I have to think at some point they will go through a stretch where they're not scoring eight runs every single game.

and not everyone in the lineup will have an 860 OPS, but I mean, Ozzie Albies is on pace for 40 home runs and 120 RBI. Like, it's just, it's absolutely nuts right now and it's elevating Matt Olson, in addition to him having the kind of bounce back season that I think a lot of people were hoping for.

So yeah, I think you can absolutely make the case that he is a top 15 overall player and fantasy the rest of the way and is the number two first baseman. I don't have it ranked that way right now, but it wouldn't take much. If you look at points per game on CBS, Matt Olson is averaging 3.8 fantasy points per game. That's just behind Freddie Freeman at 3.9. And it's ahead of Pete Alonzo, 3.4, Paul Gulchmidt 3.3.

So if we're just talking about that top five group, and then, I mean, Vlad, it's been a disappointing year for Vlad. He's 3.1 fantasy points per game. So I think there's a case for it, at least in a points league, because Matt Olson walks a lot. too. I get, you know, in Roto, Paul Goldsmith, chips in a few steals and better batting average. So you can make that case. But in a point series, Matt Olson probably is the number two first basement in the rest of season. Here's the one thing I will say is as disappointing as Vladimir Guerrero has been. His expected Wobah is actually 401 right now. And he's had this weird thing where he can't really hit for power at home, or at least he hasn't hit for power. At home so far,

his home OPS 697, wrote OPS 898. Well, he has three home runs, I think, in the last like 10 days at home. So he finally hit his first one. He followed that up, I think, with two more in that same series. I do still think Vlad is the better hitter. So I would take him rest of the way,

but I'm not super confident in that. Look at where these first base is just loaded with talent, right? So Freddie Freeman, Vlad Jr., Matt Olson, Paul Gulchmidt, Pete Alonzo. They all rank between 7th and 15th in all of baseball and expected Wobah. So that counts quality of contact plus strikeouts and walks. So they're like five of the top 15 best hitters in baseball right now. So again, it's splitting hairs, but I just wanted to give Matt Olson his dude.

It's been awesome. It's been like a slightly underwhelming season for Paul Goldschmidt. He's still a top 30 player in fantasy. It's been, actually Spencer Steer is the number four. first baseman in fantasy right now, which is he's so good. Wild. I should be doing more victory laughing on that. And yeah, Pete Alonzo's top 40. Christian Walker is actually a top 40 header as well.

So yeah, there's been some pretty good first baseman even beyond the elite guys. Yeah, everybody except the guys that I liked coming into the year. Rodi Telez and Anthony Rizzo. Yeah, it's been a little rough. Good job, Frank. Let's talk about Kodi Isanga. He tied his season high with 12 strikeouts. at the Diamondbacks. He went eight innings of one-run ball. Those aforementioned 12

strikeouts. 18 swinging strikes on 10-7 pitches. 10 on the forkball, four on the fastball, three on the cutter. And velocity up around one mile per hour on all of his main pitches in this start. Good news for Kodai Senga. And he did make a bit of a pitch mix change. He faded his four-scene fastball a little bit and through his cutter, his most used pitch in this start. And it actually is a pitch that has had much better results on balls and play. this season. So I wonder if it's something we could see more from K-Singa moving forward. Drops his ERA down to 3.35. The whip is at 1.3. That was surprising. Yeah. Yeah. And if you look at his K-per-9, 11.3 for Kada Senga, that ranks fifth among qualified starting pitchers,

behind only Spencer Shreder, Kevin Gossman, Shohayotani, and Blake Snell. So along the same lines of you moving up your Brian Beahoe in your rankings, Chris, I think Kodi-Singa probably deserves to be top 50-ish. Yeah, that's an interesting one. Let me see where I have him. He is 66 for me. That feels a little low, but it's also like, like when I said, I was surprised that his ERA is down to 332.

335. It might be 332, because I think he came out for the eighth and I was not expecting it. Yeah. 331. It's pretty good. Unless we're right. That's surprising because outside. of May, he hasn't had an ERA under three in any month this season.

It was 4.15 in April, 371 in June, but obviously this is a really good start. He, the vibes I'm getting are a little Blake Snelly where there are going to be absolute moments of brilliance, but he has not shown the consistent ability to throw strikes. And the actual weird thing is he's had three starts where he's, he's had one walk or fewer so far this season. It was this one. It was June 17th against the Cardinals when he gave up four earned runs. And it was May 11th against the Reds when he gave up five earned runs and five innings.

So that's kind of interesting that that has not been the silver bullet for him. But yeah, I just, I have a hard time being aggressively, you know, aggressively moving a guy up when you look at the monthly splits. And I'm just doing monthly splits because it's an easy way for me not to have. to do math on my own, right? The months are arbitrary endpoints. 18 walks and 26 in April. 13 and 29. 15 and 26 and two thirds. Two of the three months, he's had well over four and a half walks per nine. I think both of those are over five walks per nine. The good month is more like four walks per nine. That's just a really high number. And he hasn't shown signs of consistently figuring that

out enough for me to buy in. But I think he's going to be good. It's just limitations on innings and specifically whip. His whip, even with that surprisingly good ERA, I think his whip is up to 131 for the season. That's 132. That's rough. I think he's better in Roto, although he is bad in the whip category. That's the thing is that this specifically harms you in whip. Because in a points league, he doesn't, when he's off, he doesn't, when he's off, he doesn't give you quality starts. He doesn't he doesn't go more than five innings at times, you know, because he's inefficient, the walks kind of add up and things happen. He's done a really good job of limiting runs from scoring and just kind of navigating runners on base. But yeah, for that reason,

I think he's probably better in Roto because the strikeouts are good. The ERA is good. Yeah, the whip, not so much, but he's been getting a good amount of wins as well. That's Kodi Senga. I think I'm going to push him up a little bit. He'll probably wind up around the top 50 starting pitchers, but I definitely see the Blake Snell comparison there with Kodi Senga. Let's take our first break, and when we return, I have two other names I want to talk about in terms of the rankings. Ellie Dela-Daler Cruz, another awesome game, and Bryson Stott, who it feels like maybe we haven't given his fair due this season.

We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back. A quick reminder to download and follow our five-minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball's Day in Five, where we usually talk about the top players, the top news, of the day, and it's only five minutes. So if you want to listen to that in addition to this podcast, or if you just don't have enough time to catch this one, download and follow Fantasy Baseball today in five.

If you're watching us on YouTube, you can scan that QR code. It'll take you right to the podcast feed. Let's talk about Ellie Daler Cruz, who went three for six with a sock and a shoe, his fourth home run, his 11th steal of the season. He had four hard hits in this game. The home run was 11.6 exit velocity.

traveled 455 feet, and I mentioned I updated the infield rankings. I've been hesitant, Chris, to move Ellie Dela Cruz ahead of other really big names. Are you there yet? The names like Lindor and Bobby Witt Jr. and Manny Machado. Have you been able to push Ellie Dela Cruz past those names yet? He is 37 in my overall rankings. He is my shortstop number eight. In Roto, in points, he's, I think, in like the 70 or 80 range.

His skill sets just not quite as geared for that, although the strikeouts have not been quite as bad as we feared they would be. It's still a very small sample size. And it feels like every other game, it's like, oh, his strikeout rates below 30%. Oh, his strikeout rates back over 40%. It's a little, you know, fun with small sample size. But right now it's 31%, 6% walk rate. So, yeah, not quite as good in a points league.

Let me see. in my overall rankings. I mean, look at some of the names that he's ahead of. He is ahead of Mani Machado now. I made that move today. He's ahead of different positions, but he's ahead of Adoli-Skarsia. He's ahead of Ozzy Albiz, Cedric Mullins.

Those are some pretty big names. So, yeah, I'm being pretty aggressive with him. Not like, Wander Franco is an interesting one because he slowed down a lot with the bat. but I mean the the power has been pretty good the steals have obviously been elite who would you rather have rest of season I think I have to go with Wander Franco

I've aggressively it's not like he's got a much longer track record though that's true I think there's a higher floor with Wander Franco just based on how much contact he makes his plate discipline he hasn't walked that much but he has a good eye at the plate I just think that gives him a higher floor and you know

as much power as Ellie De LaCruz has, the ground ball rate kind of does limit some of the power upside right now. That can change. He's obviously still very young. But Wander Franco has 10 homers on the year. Really good batting average, a 27 steel. So I think if everything works out for L.E. Dela Cruz, you probably want him to do what Wander Franco has done all season, right?

So, yeah, I think I would rather just stick with Wander. I think that's perfectly fair. Let's talk about Bryson Stod, who went four for five with two runs and his 15th steel. at five hard hits in this game. He is now batting 304 with seven home runs, 15 steals, a 769 OPS. A few things in the underlying numbers, the babbip is pretty high at 344. The expected numbers don't look as good for Bryson Stott.

But there are exceptions to the rule. I mean, there are always players that kind of just outperform expected numbers. So I don't want to just put that evil on Bryson Stott and say he's absolutely going to regress. He probably will regress a little bit. But Chris, what do you think about Bryce of Stott? Just based on what he's done all year, I kind of felt like I should move him up more. But then, you know, you start to get into moving him ahead of Carlos Correa and Tim Anderson and...

Yeah. Willie Adamas, guys that have struggled all year. I mean, is that something that we should consider doing at this point? It's, you know, we're halfway through the season. Even the way Stott has played, I suppose I could see the case for it. But, like, it'd be one thing if he had been overrun. overwhelmingly dominant. But, you know, it's a very good batting average.

Decent speed, but not necessarily difference-making speed anymore. Not a lot of runs overall. You know, he's still, you know, hitting sixth or lower most days. I, yeah, I don't, I don't really see it. I've been lower on him and he's made me look pretty dumb so far. But like the expected batting average is 260. The expected slug is 365. Like, I think he can hit 280.

You know, I think he could run ahead of that because he's got that all-fields approach. He is starting to hit the ball a little harder overall, but I find him pretty uninspiring. Looking at the pace numbers for Bryson Stott, he's on pace for 13 homers, 27 steals, 296 batting average. That's a pretty productive player.

The county stats are definitely underwhelming. 70 runs scored. And 60 RBI. I think that just gets back to something we were talking about before the podcast, Chris. Trey Turner and JT. Real Muto, they've been pretty big letdowns this year. So I think as a result, we've seen all of, even Kyle Swarber, the batting average is brutal, 185, I think it is. So all those guys struggling, it's led to lower counting stats totals for those guys.

And even in June, where Bryson Stott hit 302 with a 782 OPS, his best month of the season, He had 14 runs, which comes out to like an 80 to 85 run pace over the course of a season. And obviously, look, he could get moved up in the lineup. I think it's pretty unlikely given the big names at the top of that lineup that they're going to do that. But it's possible, I suppose. Lineups are not static. But yeah, I just, I think he's like a batting average specialist who's playing over his head right now. One name that I moved him ahead of, you tell me maybe I'm off base here.

I moved him ahead of Nolan Gorman, the way that he struggled mightily since the start of June. I think that's perfectly reasonable. All right. Well, that's all for the rankings here. Again, I've actually, I didn't do it on purpose. Sorry to cut you off. All good. I moved Bryson Stott one spot ahead of Nolan Gorman earlier today. It wasn't like a conscious thing, but in my overall rankings, he is one spot ahead. All right. And if you ever want to check out our rankings, you could do so on the site, cbsports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings, where we have all of of our positional rankings, and I will be updating outfield and starting pitcher here on

Thursday. Let's talk about some waiver wire hitters here, Chris, and we will start off with Colton Couser. How did he do in his debut? He picked up his first career hit and RBI single off of a left-handed pitcher. I thought that was pretty interesting. He wound up going one for three with a walk, a run, and an RBI. He also had a lineout that was 107.7.7 exit velocity. Pretty encouraging there. He's up to 50% rostered. And another outfielder, From Wednesday, Jack Swinsky went one for three with his 19th home run. We've talked extensively about him in the past.

He's a pretty interesting player to evaluate. He's batting 236. He walks a lot. Jack Swinsky, 19 homers, seven steals, an 891 OPS. That's a pretty valuable player, Chris. Where do you fall on Jack Swinsky, and what did you think of Colton Couser's debut? Good to see Colton Couser getting in there

and getting a hit off a lefty. not a ton to add beyond that. It was just, you know, it's one game, so you're just looking for positive signs. And we got it. Got to hit off a lefty. It wasn't smoked. It was a solid line drive,

83 miles per hour to right field. As for Swinsky, he's just all over the place. I mean, like, he had a decent month of June because he walked 15 times and hit five home runs.

He had 772 OPS, but he had 185. And he, did he miss some time or was he sitting out against some lefties? I think that might have been the case because only 85, 82 played appearances in the month of June. I think he's just kind of an all or nothing guy. And the nice thing about that is he does bring some speed to the table. And so it's not like a Kyle Schwerber all or nothing where if he's not hitting, he's not going to give you anything. you know, Swincky can swipe a base, but I think he's also worse than Kyle Schwerber as a hitter. So they're the the lows are going to be a lot lower.

Yeah. And with Jack Swinsky, you were talking about him. He kind of reminds me of the the Blake Snell, the Kodi-Senga of hitters. Right. It's just I think we're going to get wild inconsistencies. He's going to go through stretches where he looks really good. He's going to go through stretches where you want to drop him off your team. He's, uh, Justin Upton was a hitter like that in the past where yeah. Man, if you looked at his monthly OPS, it would be like one month, up over a thousand, the next below 700. So it's a wild ride, but you know, specifically if you're playing a roto league, it's just what are the numbers at the end of the season? Yep. And right now, it looks like at the end of the season, Jack Swinsky's numbers are

going to look pretty good. Would you take him over either of Liotti Tavares or Tommy FAM? Those are two names we've talked a lot about recently. I think I would take him over Tommy Famm, but not Laudi Tavares. I really like what we've seen from Liotto Tavares. All right. Let's talk about a few corner infielders. Joey Votto went three for five with his fifth home run in 13 games. He is only batting 205 so far, but has an 885 OPS in the small sample. Garrett Cooper continues to hit well, two for four with a double walk and three RBI. How about those Marlins, by the way? The team of destiny. Just the dumbest win in Marlins history. It was just the most routine throw over to first base. And Jordan Hicks just airmails it. It wasn't just that. It was they go up, I think, 4-0 in the first inning. They're leading 5-0-0 tie game.

They go up, I think, 8-7 going into the 9th. AJ Puck gives up a two-run home run to Jordan Walker. And then Jordan Hicks, who's been awesome this season, gives up two hits. I think I can't even remember the guy's name. Shorts, the guy who's playing third base for them. Joey Wendell goes up. and like legitimately the most overmatched I've seen a major league hitter look in and at bat so far this season.

Jordan Hitch just pumps 202 mile an hour fastballs right by him. And Joey Wendell, I turned to my wife. She's sitting next to me. I'm like, this guy's got zero chance. And what does he do? He chases 103 mile an hour sinker out of the zone, hits it 22 feet. And a little bit of that's on Paul Gullchman. Paul Gultzman was like weirdly late getting to the bag.

You can see Jordan Hicks pump because Paul Goldschmidt's not there yet. And I think that's what threw him off. And the Marlins win in a walkoff on a ball that was hit 22 feet. It was incredible and stupid and I loved watching it. It was insane. By the way, that Jordan Walker home run, he's going to be really good. I think Jordan Walker is going to, I'm not breaking news here, but 112 exit velocity, 444 feet on that home run. You know, people were tweeting at me asking,

Do we drop Jordan Walker? It's no, don't drop Jordan Walker, man. He's going to be good. He's going to be really good. I will say this, man. Going against the Cardinals, I know they've been crappy this season. I still think that lineup is terrifying.

Like actually going through it and like, you got to get Paul Goldschmidt and then Nolan Aaronah. It's just like, man, that sucks for pitchers. And it just has not come together for them, but was not surprising that Jordan Walker crushed one tonight. I think it's been mostly pitching more than anything. for the Cardinals and their bullpen.

They've flown so many games this year too. Yeah, the bullpen like overall isn't bad. It's just been the worst possible timing like tonight. Let's get back to the corner infielder. Joey Votto and Garry Cooper. Cooper, by the way, 27 games since the start of June. Batting 296 with six home runs, doing a pretty good job of barreling up the ball there.

Joey Votto and Cooper, Chris, who do you like more as a corner infielder? Oh, I would go with Votto. Just the power that he's shown. in the early going is reminiscent of that. What was it, 36 homer season in 2021? He does seem to have rediscovered something here. And, you know, the batting average is really low.

He's striking out a lot. I'm not so worried about that. But, yeah, tonight's home run was a bit of a cheap. It was like 380 feet to left field. But, you know, opposite field home run. That's always good to see. He is completely selling out for power right now. that's what it looks like, because he has a

54% fly ball rate, which his previous high was as a rookie. It was two years ago, 42%. So, pull rate is way up. Yeah. There's a little bit to that, yeah. Yeah. I think it's leading the strikeouts too, but I think there's going to be some power there. Obviously, it's great

ballpark and Votto's hitting right in the middle of one of the most exciting lineups in baseball right now. So I think I would agree with you Vado over Garekouper. as well. Edward Julian, I don't know that there's much to do with this. He went one for two with a walk and his sixth home run. On paper, he's been fine.

258 batting average, 8-11 OPS. He's been terrible against lefties. He has a 34% strikeout rate. He sat, I think it was on Tuesday against a righty. I don't know why. So his playing time has been kind of weird. I think if you picked him up in a deeper league,

you just hold on. But outside of that, I don't know that there's much utility for Edward Julian. And Jainer Diaz, this guy has been awesome. Two for four with a double dong. He just keeps hitting in 26 games since the start of June. He's betting 298 with eight home runs. I asked Scott this question last week.

It's kind of a tough one to answer right now. It's as great as Diaz has played, if you picked up in a two-catchel league, you're loving it. I just don't know where or how he's going to play every day once Yordon Alvarez returns to this lineup. That's the biggest question right now. Yeah, and, you know, the underlying numbers are actually pretty good. but it's been a lot of, you know, cheapish home runs to left field.

He's taking advantage of that short porch. You know, it's the kind of thing, though, where I don't really, I can't say not to add him, right? Like, I guess if you're in a one catcher points league, maybe not, but there aren't 24 good catchers right now who are worth rostering. So in two catcher leagues, I think he's absolutely worth rostering. You just worry about it when he's not playing. Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. I moved Diaz up to 23rd in my catcher ranking.

So he's certainly viable in a two-catcher-R-O-League. That is Yiner-D-S. Two names in deeper leagues. Will Benson win two-for-five with two RBI and his seventh steal. All of a sudden, he's batting 287 with an 833 OPS. He's started eight of the past 10 games for the Reds. Looks like he is not playing against lefties. He only has 11-plated appearances against lefties on the season.

The other name here is Tony Kemp. That's right. at Tony Kemp. He went two for four with two RBI and his eight steel. And fun with arbitrary endpoints. Last 18 games for Tony Kemp, he's betting 333 with two home runs, four steals, and only three strikeouts in 18 games. It's pretty crazy.

Chris, anything here on Will Benson or Tony Kemp in deeper leagues? I feel like we get like a stretch like this from Tony Kemp every season. And he is what he is. He's like the sloppiest slap hitter in baseball. his average XIx velocity is always among the league. The bottom of the league, hard hit rate is 21% right now, which is actually an improvement over last season. League average is 36% for context.

So I don't think there's much to be excited about with either of these guys, Benson a little more just because good lineup, good home park. It's just, you know, the not playing against lefties is, you know, limits the upside. Who would you say is a better slap hitter? Tony Kemp or Ronald de Kuna?

Oh, Tony Kemp probably a better slap hitter since he's actually a slap hitter. That's right. Let's quickly hit some news and notes before we get to our final break. And Shohei Otani was in the lineup as the DH Wednesday, despite dealing with that blister.

Joe Adele also in the lineup against the right-handed pitcher. In Seth Lugo, I thought that was pretty interesting. I wrote Taylor Walls was on the past. Taylor Ward. I'm pretty sure I meant to say Taylor Ward. Looks like they're going to continue doing a rotation like they were

doing when Mike Trout was healthy there. Speaking of Mike Trout, he did undergo surgery on his fractured left ham apeone on Wednesday and is set to miss the next four to six weeks. Astros GM Dana Brown said that a decision has not been made regarding whether Jose Al Tuve will go on the IL, but he could be held out of the lineup through the All-Star break. He is currently dealing with left oblique tightness. Brandon Woodruff threw off flat ground the past few days and is aiming to throw a bullpen this weekend he's been out since mid-April with a grade two sub-scapular strain.

Clayton Kirchaw said his shoulder injury is trending upward and that he feels confident he'll be ready to pitch after the All-Star break. Estuary Ruiz will undergo x-rays on an MRI on his right shoulder on Thursday. Hopefully he's good to go because if you play in any Roto or Categories League, the guy has been a godsend leading baseball with 43 steals on the season. Kutel Marte has missed two straight due to lower back soreness. He did appear as a pinch hitter on Wednesday. And all it took was me acquiring him in the Scott White Dynasty League for Kutel Marte to get hurt. So I'm sorry to everybody else out there.

Christian Javier will not make another start before the All-Star break. He was originally slated to start this weekend. And frankly, it might be for the best. For our fantasy teams, for Christian Javier, take an extended break, try to get your mind right, come back after the All-Star break. mechanics right. His, his arm slots just a little off. He's a little less elevated. And so yeah, that that's one where it's just hopefully he can get right. Yeah. Bryce Miller, who is placing the aisle with a blister on his right middle finger is quote, not going to pitch for a while.

That's all we got. I don't know what that means. Yeah, he threw 133 innings last season. So I don't think there's like innings management going on. So that's a little, maybe a little more serious than your typical blister. I read a little bit more about it and apparently it severely affects his velocity. So someone who relies so heavily on just his fastball, they probably need to wait until that blister is just completely gone until he can get back to pitching for the Mariners. Roddy Tellez was placed on the aisle with right forearm inflammation.

Apparently something he's been dealing with for a while now. So might explain some of the struggles for him. Brian Anderson was activated from the paternity list. Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Justin Turner could be used at second base in the coming days as the team looks to jumpstart their offense. Trevor's story could be back, could be ready for a rehab assignment immediately after the All-Star break. He had internal brace surgery on his right elbow back in January. Zach Grinke was placed in the aisle with right shoulder tendonitis.

Yankees reliever Jimmy Cordero has been suspended for the remainder of the season for violating MLB's joint domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse policy. And last but not least, Chris, the home run derby field is set. We've got Pete Alonzo, Julio Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Muki Betz, Randy Orozarena, Luis Robert, Adley-Rutchman, and Adolice Garcia. Honestly, it's a pretty awesome group. I'm in. I'm in on this. Yeah, I think the matchups are Pete Alonzo versus Randy or Roserena, Mookie Betts versus Adelis Garcia, Vlad Guerrero versus Luis Robert

and Julio, no, sorry. I don't know why they have them in this order because it's Julio Rodriguez against P. Alonzo. So I was hoping I could find the bracket real quick, but I couldn't. I have the bracket, but it's probably too late. Yeah, while you were reading it off, it was completely wrong and I'm just like,

I'll tell him as soon as he's done talking. No, I figured it out because I remember seeing Alonzo versus Rodriguez earlier, and I was like, oh, that's super fun. And then I realized that's not what I read and it's, it's already, we're already gone. Yeah, I only know because I remember Randy a Rosarena against Adolese Garcia. And to me, those guys are the Spider-Man name.

It's just, every time I see them in the rankings, I'm like, I'm going to just put them back to back. They're both really good. I don't know who should be ahead of the other. But they're good. They're really good players, Adolias Garcia, and Randy a Rosarena. Let's take our final break. And when we return, I do have some Waverwire pitchers.

Some leftovers will do that right after this. Welcome back, and a quick thanks to everyone watching us live. We do appreciate you being here. Please hit that like button. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Let's talk some waiver wire pitchers, and we'll start off with these first two. JP France has turned in six straight quality starts.

He was facing the Rockies. Six innings, three runs, four strikeouts, with nine swinging strikes. He lowers his ERA to 326, though the underlying numbers are not buying it when it comes to JP France. The other name is Seth Lugo, who has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 of 12 starts this season. He's just been rock solid.

Facing the Angels, six innings, two runs, one of those earned with six strikeouts and a season high, 18 swinging strikes for Seth Lugo. 49% rostered. Chris, Seth Lugo kind of feels like one of the most under-rastered players in fantasy baseball, especially when you consider that he has, he's a spark on CBS. You can use him in a relief pitcher spot. Yeah, I think part of it was that he missed some time and it kind of derailed whatever momentum there might have been. And if you're, you know, you either have to be like a top prospect who comes out firing or you have to get off to a really, really good start. And he just kind of got off to like a pretty good start in April, but then he didn't build on it.

And I think people just kind of forgot about him. But yeah, he's, I made the comp to Braxton Garrett a few weeks ago. And I think Garrett has more strikeouts. but overall, I think they're kind of similar players. They're not going to go super deep into games consistently, but when things are going right, they're pretty solid pitchers. So I do like Seth Lugo quite a bit more than I like JP France,

so I just don't buy it at all. Like even this stretch with the six complete air, six quality starts, it's like 22 strikeouts to 13 walks in 40-something, innings. It's just like, I don't buy it at all. JP France, he does get a lot of ground balls. He's done a good job of limiting hard contact, but yeah, the strikeout rate is really bad. His FIP is 480. His ex-fip is 460, so I do think we're going to see some regression at some point here for JP France. You know, when evaluating

Seth Lugo, it reminded me a lot of Zach Eflin, just kind of a poor man, Zach Eflin, gets a good amount of strikeouts, but not a ton, really good walk rate, gets ground balls. has done a good job limiting hard contact as well. So I like the profile. So I don't know that there's like a huge upside with Seth Lugo, but certainly a very high floor. And I think he needs to be rostered in all points leagues where you do have that relief pitcher spot.

One name that pitched on Wednesday that kind of feels a little bit overrated right now, I know he has the name value from the past. He's still currently the most added starting pitcher on CBS. Michael Soroka did not allow a run, but was inefficient at the Guardians, four and two-thirds shutout innings. Five hits, three walks,

had seven swinging strikes on 99 pitches. And he's made four starts. He's got a 531 ERA, a 157 whip. Chris just feels like people are holding on to the Mike Soroka that we knew from the past, and they're kind of hoping he gets back there. I'm hoping that happens. But we really don't have much evidence

that it's going to happen. 58% rostered seems too high for him. Way too high. I mean, that's, I'd much rather have Seth Lugo. Agreed. I guess I'd rather have J.P. France, but I don't feel super confident about that one way or the other.

But yeah, Soroka has made 10 starts now between the minors and the majors. Part of that was on his rehab assignment. So you don't judge the results of those entirely. But, I mean, he got sent back to AAA and was better, but not particularly good still. You know, it was, uh,

one, sorry. Yeah, it was pretty good. Three run runs over his three starts, but it was like three strikeouts and one, four walks in that one. It just, I don't know. It would be a great story. I'm certainly rooting for him,

but I just think it's too much to come back from. Two names that pitched well, who I think are mostly streamers. I don't know that there's much else here. Dean Kramer, he was great at the Yankees, seven innings of two-run ball. Only one of those earned 10 strikeouts with 18 swinging strikes for Kramer.

And Tommy Henry turned in a scoreless outing up against the Mets. He went six shutout innings with two strikeouts in that one. Tommy Henry does do some interesting things. 10.7% swinging strike rate does a really good job limiting hard contact. But I think for the most part, Chris, these two names are left for the streaming category. Dean Kramer and Tommy Henry. Yeah, I don't know where the strikeouts came from for Kramer. He had five in each of his previous three starts, I believe.

Hasn't really been trending up in that regard. Doesn't really profile as a great swing and miss guy. I like Dean Kramer a bit as a streamer, you know, especially when they're at home, but also when they have good matchups on the road. This was certainly better than I expected. But we talked about him as a potential streamer for this one. Yep, certainly did.

And let's talk about two other names. Don't really think that they matter. In fact, Randy Vasquez was optioned back to the money. minors after his start, but he has allowed a total of two earned runs in three starts for the Yankees this season. And one other thing with him, both his sweeper and curb ball have a spin rate over 3,000 RPM. I mean, those are elite level spin rates. It hasn't translated to great production in the miners, but I thought it was interesting. And Graham Ashcraft has now turned in back-to-back quality starts. Chris, anything here, deeper leagues. Randy Vasquez, Graham Ashcraft.

Vasquez, I mean, there's not no intrigue just because he does have a little bit of prospect pedigree, but obviously the fact that he was sent down suggests that there's not much to be interested in. And then Ashcraft, I think he's just going to have starts like this because when he's on, he's really hard to square up. But I think that the inconsistency is going to overwhelm that. And you just see in the number, 620.80, all that's not a fluke. You know, that's not bad luck. It's a very, very minor margin for error because he just, he's got two pitches. They're very similar pitches.

You know, one's the slider, one's the cutter. But he just, he doesn't have a very enough skill set, I think, to get away with it. All right. Let's talk about two pitchers that have been struggling lately. John Gray, since he was dealing with a blister in mid-June just has not been the same. You know what? I didn't write down the numbers since then. But he was really good before.

that blister and then he had that blister and he just kind of fell apart, has given up, gave up four runs in this outing over six innings pitched at the Boston Red Sox. And yeah, the strikeouts haven't been great lately for John Gray. The other name here is Bobby Miller, who has slowed down tremendously over his last four starts. And look at that. I actually wrote down the numbers for him. 857 ERA and a 167 whip over his last four starts. Chris, what's going on with Bobby Miller and John Gray?

I mean, John Gray, it kind of just seems like the blister, right? Because he had 12 strikeouts to zero walks on June 7th against the Cardinals. His next start out only goes two and a third innings. His last four starts overall, I believe it's 12 strikeouts to 10 walks over 19 in the third innings. That's not good on any of those. I guess the innings over four starts isn't terrible, but it's not great either. So, yeah, I would hope that it's just a.

get some rest, stop throwing for a week or two during the All-Star break, and let's get back to it, but obviously it's a little concerning. And then Bobby Miller, I wonder how much of it's just growing pains for a young pitcher.

The Dodgers, whatever secret sauce, whatever magic they had that got the best out of every single pitcher they threw out there. The last like five or six years has not been there today. We've seen Michael Grove

and Gavin Stone this season of all struggled. Emmett Sheehan has had his ups and downs as well. But I do still think Bobby Miller has a lot going for him. You know, the changeup really good pitch. The slider still looks like a very good pitch. He's figuring out his fastballs, you know, the four seamer versus the sinker. He throws them hard, but the results haven't been great. So I still think there's a lot to work with for Bobby Miller.

And he's just, I like to think it's growing pains. I think maybe we, or at least I did. I think maybe I put too high of expectations on these rookie pitchers. As soon as they got called up, you know, we get so excited. It was one name after another. Tage Bradley, Bobby Miller, Yuri Perez, Andrew Abbott, just all these names, one after another. And, you know, it's almost like a good competition of one guy showing up the next one. And for a while, you know, Bobby Miller looked amazing.

And Andrew Abbott continues to pitch really well. And I think I just have to keep the right mindset that these guys not only are they human, but they're rookies. They're rookie pitchers, man. They're allowed to struggle. You know, pitchers in general, veteran pitchers are allowed to struggle, especially rookies. So I think he's just kind of going through it right now. But if you watch Bobby Miller pitch, as he pointed out, the secondaries look good.

He throws 100 miles per hour on his fastball. I think in the long run, he's going to be all right. But he's just kind of going through it right now. And I think that's fair for a rookie pitcher. Let's get into some leftovers here. We'll start with the two pitchers, Alex Cobb, a strong start up against the Mariners, six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. It was his first quality start since June 3rd. And Eduardo Rodriguez actually went the other way. His first start back for the Tigers.

He was roughed up by the Oakland Aids of all teams. Four innings pitched. Five runs allowed. Did have seven strikeouts. Seems like he might have been a little bit unlucky in this one. He didn't really allow much hard contact. The strikeouts were there. Anything to add on Erod and Alex Cobb. Yeah, Erod got babipped a little bit. And the other thing I noticed, And this is the one thing I would say just to kick it off is I tend to give guys coming back from injury a mulligan. You know, especially in Eduardo Rodriguez case, what we saw in this start was his cutter usage was down. He used his cutter about the same as his slider. And, you know, I do wonder if that's just a first start back.

He's not 100% healthy with this finger injury. Because, you know, you think about the way you throw those two pitches. They're similar-ish pitches, but the cutter is more about the pressure that you place on the ball as you release it rather than, you know, the flip of the wrist as with the slider. And so, you know, I do wonder if he just wasn't 100% confident with it. But, you know, as he gets further removed from the injury, maybe the cutter will become more of a weapon for him. So that was the one thing I noticed with him. Cobb, I think, is really interesting because the splitter just hasn't been as effective. And that's been his best pitch over the last couple of seasons.

But the spin rates up a little bit, which, you know, not necessarily what you want with the splitter. And the whiff rates down. So he's not getting, you know, probably the same amount of movement on that pitch. And the results overall have been really good this season, 291 ERA from a guy who, you know, we've liked a little bit as a sleeper. But the underlying metrics, specifically the strike. out rate. It's as low as since 2020. So I think there is some concern there that the splitter just hasn't been quite as good as he needs it to be, despite, you know, overall pretty good results.

Again, that is Alex Cobb. Let's move over to some hitting leftovers. Alec Bowen went three for four with a run, RBI, and his third steal. 19 games since returning from the IL. He's betting 333, with three home runs and a ton of line drives. Nolan Aronado went three for five with three doubles, two runs and two RBI. Wilson Contreras, three for four with a double, two runs and two RBI. Three straight multi-hit games for Wilson Contreras. Batting average, slowly creeping up. The expected numbers still look really good.

I think we might get a really big second half from Wilson Contreras. He's a name that I would be looking to buy right now. Absolutely. The expected stats have been really good all season. They're starting to catch up. So, yeah. Sean Murphy, four for five with his 15th home run. He had three hard hits in this game.

All of them, over 109, eggs of velocity. He had a single that was nearly 1 15 miles per hour off the bat. He has been a stud. Predaculous. Mani Machado continues his strong play, went two for three with his 12th home run. And JD Martinez hit his 20th home run of the season. It's just so interesting that coming off a year in Boston where you would think that ballpark is tailor made for JD Martinez.

He looked like he was slowing down and then boom, gets a one year deal from the Dodgers and he's just, he's not fully back to prime J.D. Martinez, but he's really not far off the way that he's played so far this year. I'm going to make a comp right now, Chris, and I know he's not the player that David Ortiz is, but I just wonder if we can, the tail end of J.D. Martinez's career here, can we get like a David Ortiz-esque outcome where he just doesn't slow down, right? He just keeps hitting until he retires. The way he's looked this year, I don't know that it, I don't think it's impossible. I'll just throw, I'll, I'll, I'll say that.

The, the thing that's tough there is David Ortiz was such a freak that like, he retired when he was six years older than J.D. Martinez currently is and he was still one of the best hitters in baseball throughout that time. It's just ridiculous. But, you know, Gene Martinez, like, I think we're seeing some interesting tradeoffs here, right? Like, he's hitting for better power than he has in a long time. His average X velocity is the highest that's been since 2018. But he's also got the highest strikeout rate of his career at 30.3%. So like, those are the kind of tradeoffs that you expect to see from an older player.

And so far it's working. And, you know, I think there will come a time when there will be diminishing returns, but we're not there yet. J.D. Martinez turns 36 years old in August. And frankly, I hope he just kind of sticks around with the Dodgers. But, you know, with that being said, I know that they're big players for Shoahou Tan. Let's bring them home to Miami, baby. Hey.

That's a local kid. That might actually work out. Playing in high school class of 06. Let's see what happens. Let's go Falcons. This off season, J.D. Martinez to the Marlins. Make it happen. The call to the bullpen, a few updates here for the Astros.

Ryan Presley picked up his 19th save for the Red Sox. Kenley Jansson picked up his 18th for the Marlins. A.J. Puck entered the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a two-run homer to Jordan Walker. and then the Cardinals, we kind of walked you through it, but Jordan Hicks, he got the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead. He had two runners on base, one out. He air-mailed a throw to first base.

Both came in to score. The Cardinals lose another wild game. The Orioles, Felix Bottista, recorded the final four outs for his 23rd save. For the Brewers, Devin Williams entered the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up three runs, two of those earned. He took his second blown save and second loss. for the Cubs, Adbert Aalai struck out two for his fifth save,

and he is only 27% rostered. He looks like the Cubs closer. He's also been really good. 241 ERA, a 0.94 whip for Advert Alzali. Josh Hater picked up his 20th save of the season, and let's kind of talk out some of these other bullpens on the fly here, because I didn't write it down. Camillo Doval picked up his 25th save.

I think that ties the league lead with Jordan Remain. I believe so, yeah. Wow, he's been, he's been amazing. Lights out there for Camillo DeVall. And then the Mets and Diamondbacks game. That was kind of a, kind of a wacky one. I know Scott McGuff came in earlier. I think he, he recorded the seventh and eighth. He recorded four outs across the seventh and eighth. It was a really tight game. I get it. They probably wanted to use him against the heart of the lineup. And then Andrew Schafein. Yeah, he blew a save. Came in in the ninth inning with a one run lead. He gave up two runs. He took his third blown save and second loss of the season.

On the other side, David Robertson picked up his 13th save. I'm just now seeing the Dodgers. Daniel Hudson. The Dodgers, they had a two-run win. Daniel Hudson. Boom.

It was a little iffy. He got the bases loaded, I think with one run, with one out, had a couple of walks, but did have two strikeouts. I think that gives him five strikeouts in three innings so far for Daniel Hudson.

His velocity's been mostly, fine. He got five whiffs on 29 pitches today, four on the slider. So some good and bad. The control, obviously not great to walk too, but he got his first save and it was not coming in mid-inning or anything. He got, they treated him like a closer in this one. I don't necessarily think Daniel Hudson is just the closer now, but that's, that's interesting. I'm absolutely sure that Evan Phillips was unavailable today. So that's a big factor in this, but I think there's a chance. that maybe Phillips is used earlier in games as the fireman reliever and, you know,

the biggest spot in the game. And then maybe Daniel Hudson picks up a few saves moving forward there with the Dodgers. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Thursday. And who did we say yesterday? I think it was Kyle Braddish at the Yankees. Michael Lorenzen versus the A's. Yeah, I don't love the options overall,

but those would be my two favorites. Jack Flaherty against Miami I don't think I could do it Against that buzzsaw of a lineup There's no way They're making it happen right now Let's take a look at Friday And hell gosh

This is a Not a great list Well you gotta stream a Ritey against the Royals So Aaron Savali I think is Yeah perfectly fine Yeah throw them out there There's no way right Chris You can't

You can't play Alec Menoa his first start back Right? I can't I'm a coward. I want to see it first. I think there's, we talked about it yesterday. I think there's a possibility

that Alec Manoa figured it out and is just going to be good the rest of the season, but you need to see it against real major league pitcher hitters. I don't hate Andrew Haney against Washington. I don't love it,

obviously, but that's probably the second best year. Yeah, it's definitely Savali the most. Yeah. Andrew Heaney, he's still 75% rostered, so might not be out there. The other two names

I'll just mention, but you really shouldn't do it. James and Tyone at the Yankees. Revenge game. No Aaron Judge. The lineup has been bad. Tyone has also been really bad. And Griffith Canning has pitched well, but at the Dodgers, it's kind of... Yeah, I just don't like the matchup. Yeah, I don't really like those two. It's mostly Aaron Savali for me. We're going to wrap there for 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. You know.