Fantasy Baseball Today - Garrett Crochet Dominates! Week 13 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (6/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Garrett Crochet struck out a career-high 13 (3:40)! Should you still look to sell-high? ... Taj Bradley was awesome on Thursday (12:24). ... Let's take a closer look at Rays spotlight Chandler Simpson (17:59). ... News (26:18): Corey Seager was scratched with hamstring soreness. ... Brandon Pfaadt has quietly pitched well (28:16). ... Aaron Nola got crushed in Boston (33:20). ... Should Reynaldo Lopez be ranked higher (36:46)? ... Jake Burger and Andrew Vaughn are both coming around (43:27). ... Let's preview Week 13 with two-start pitchers and sleeper hitters (50:54). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:02). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

of fantasy baseball today on June 14th. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers here on a Kokomo Friday, let's go. Today on the show, Garrett Crochet was amazing, Aranola was not, we have our week 13 preview and another prospect spotlight, but let's up in. You can put it on the board, yes, yes. You know we had to get a little Hawk Harrelson

for the White Sox talk, And Chris, that brings me to you, the player of the night. Yeah, so the player who actually made me say, oh, my goodness gracious, was David Robertson, who struck out Mookie Betts, Shohei Otani, and Freddie Freeman in a row twice in the last two games. Wow. Which might be the most impressive thing a relief pitcher can do in Major League Baseball right now, but Garer Crochet was pretty good.

13 strikeouts in seven innings, one earned run, two walks. The Mariners were just overwhelmed, I think is the appropriate word here. Garer Crochet, nothing fancy. 70% fastballs, 29% cutters, 24 swings and misses on 48 swings. This was just an absolutely absurdly dominant start from Garretcher. And it puts the Seattle Mariners back in the number one spot for the highest strikeout rate team of all time. They had dipped just below the 2020 Detroit Tigers before this outing,

but 19 strikeouts on 40 plate appearances will get them back to 27.5% strikeout rate as a team. There's a little bit of blame the Mariners, but there's a lot of just Garrett Crochet is freaking amazing. And he's a tough pitcher to value because we don't know how many innings he's going to throw moving forward, But he's really, really good right now. And I don't know how much I want to worry about the possibility of an innings limit, especially because unlike with Louis Heel, I don't know how assured we are that Garrow Crochet's got an inning's limit.

I'm pretty certain he does. I mean, no one has come out and said that. But whether the White Sox are looking to protect their pole, for the future, protect, you know, an asset that they might want to trade at some point. I think it makes sense, especially for a team that isn't competing for anything this season. But again, we don't have any confirmation that that is actually the case. And coming off of this start, Scott, career high, 13 strikeouts, 24 whiffs on 102 pitches. There is no better time.

I don't know that the value will ever be higher this season to sell high on Garrett Crochet. Now, again, we say this all the time, and I need to stress. This has nothing to do with the talent or the performance of Garrett Crochet. To me, this is solely, I do believe that there will be an innings limit at some point. And if you're selling high, make sure you stress the high part, and you have to get something amazing. If not, just keep them. Yeah, I don't know.

I'm kind of with Chris, I think. I think we overstate the innings limit thing. and I probably haven't researched this enough to really back this up but it just feels like they build in so many innings management things over the course of a season for every pitcher

you know this isn't we're not in a time it's been a long time since we've been in a time where like the default number of innings is 180 it's not even close to that anymore it's like what 150 and I think I think most any pitcher teams teams feel comfortable

asking most any pitcher to go 150 innings these days. So I don't know. I just know we've gotten burned by that multiple times in the past. Like, oh yeah, this guy's definitely not going to get to this inning's total. And then he gets to that innings total and exceeds it, you know? And it just happens

so often that... Well, I think the thing with Crochet, in particular, that makes this different from Yuri Perez or Luis Heel in a current situation is one, we talked about this the other day,

but Gere Crochet is going to have over four years of service time after this season, barring something catastrophic, which means that the White Sox and or whoever trades for him in the next month or so, we'll only have two more seasons of Gare Crochet's club control remain. That's a significant difference than when you're talking about, six more years for Yuri Perez last season. Or I think Louise Heel is going to be at two years of service time after this season,

which means four more years after this one. So that is, I think, a different situation. And then there's just, Gerecrochet passed his career high innings going back to college two starts ago. He is already in completely uncharted territory. maybe he threw more than 84 and two-thirds innings in high school. I think that's unlikely. But he never threw more than 65 in college. He has not thrown more than 60 or 54 as a professional.

So you could make an argument that they should already be ramping him down and limiting his innings if they were working. This is like, this is like Verducci rule stuff, right? Yeah, the Verducci rule was you don't want to go more than 50 innings over. the previous season. He's already done that. Yeah. He did that three starts ago. And that's something that a journalist came up with 25 years ago.

And I just, I just don't know that teams approach it that way anymore. I mean, teams tend to. You really don't. But like, it's different for every situation. Like, when Lance Lynn was coming back from Tommy John's surgery, this is, you know, three or four years ago,

maybe, maybe longer. But he went over 200 innings in his first year back. And that was after missing a full season. So every situation is different. Every pitcher's different. I think the bigger concern with Garrick Crochet is just he's shown no ability to remain healthy and effective after throwing this many innings. And so will there be a step back? I think it's reasonable to assume that. But I also think it's reasonable to just say, screw it, unless somebody's going to give me SP2 value for Garer Crochet, I'm just going to hang on to him and write it. How many

pitchers on a per start basis. Like particularly if you're talking a head-to-head context rather than rotisserie and you need that impact from week to week. How many pitchers out there can do what Gare Crochet can? I mean, a dozen, maybe? And none of us even rank him that high. So we're factoring in some amount of, okay, we're facting in some amount of workload management in our ranking with Gare- Crochet.

But given that there are so few pitchers who can even do what he does on a week-to-week start-to-start basis, I think the only scenario that makes sense, particularly given the scarcities in fantasy baseball right now, is if you can trade Garrett Crochet for a hitter who you think is going to be elite the rest of the way, may not even necessarily be a straight-up trade. But if you can use Garrett-Crochet to get that kind of hitter, that's that I can see being worth it. but would you trade him for Oziolbies straight up yeah probably

I mean would you train him for Cateo Marte Cotel Marte I could see doing that sure it depends how deep mutt the rest of my pitching staff is Royce Lewis maybe they're they're kind of they're kind of the Spider-Man meme right

like hitter and pitcher version not that crochet is well I guess he is injury prone but yeah he's he's Turned like 60 innings as a professional before this season. I think I would do that. Spencer Steer? Or are we still on Royce Lewis?

Merse Lewis, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would do it for Royce Lewis. I don't know if I would do it for Spencer. Steer's getting to the point where it's less automatic. Mm-hmm. Really have to weigh needs.

Yeah. When I was saying like sell high on crochet, I was thinking like top two or three round player. I don't know that that's realistic, but that is what I'm thinking in my mind. Do not sell this guy short by any means. And if you're not going to get that in return, just keep it. Because obviously we see what he's capable of.

A couple of quick stats. A top two or three round player, I'm probably trading any pitcher for that. Sure. Yeah. No disagreement here. Last nine starts for Garrett Crochet. It's a 136 ERA.76 whip. 76 strikeouts over 53 innings.

He's allowed 28 hits during that span, which is just nuts. And also only what? 10 walks, I think, in that span. I think it was like 10 or 11 walks, yeah. His 116 strikeouts total are tied with Tyler Glass now for most in Major League Baseball. That is Garrett Crochet. Scott, let's go over to you, Player of the Night. Oh, we spent so long talking about him.

I forget who it was. Remind me who it was. Tage Brad. Tage. My man, Tage Bradley. Yes. Dominant. Against the Cubs.

Struck out 11 over seven innings. Zero earned runs. two unearned runs. Only three hits allowed. Dominant. 17 swinging strikes. This gives him now 11.7K per 9. It gives him a swinging strike rate, I believe, over 14%.

So we're getting to the top of the scales in both of those measurements, the top of the scales and just how overpowering Tosh Bradley stuff is after, you know, a few minor league start. on the shorter side, but still a few rehab starts where he would look just as dominant. Like he's looking like an elite bat misser is Taj Bradley. And so I know there's been a certain amount of hand wringing over the exit velocities against him, the quality of contact against him. I don't think it matters that much. That seems like a secondary issue.

If you're able to miss bats like an elite, pitcher. Like the exit velocity readings, the amount of hard contact you give up, it only matters to the extent that you're giving up contact. And so I don't know that Tosh Bradley is going to remain

nearly 12K per 9, but if he's 10K per 9, it just seems like a footnote that, oh yeah, by the way, his exit velocity is blue on his stack house pitch. Well, that's true to an extent. But to the extent,

when we're talking, is should he be rostered? Right, right, right. That's available in the third of CBS Sports League. That should you add, Taj Bradley? Yes, absolutely no question about.

Is he a must start pitcher moving forward? Is a very different question? Because I don't know if we view Hunter Green as a must start pitcher. And that's the book on Hunter Green, at least before this season. He's actually his quality of contact has been much better this season. But the issue of the past couple of years was, yeah,

he gets a lot of strikeouts. but the control is not great, and he gives up a lot of home runs. And so the ratios are going to hurt you. And that is, I think, the question with Tage Bradley when you're talking about upside. When you're talking about whether you should start at a player, that, yeah, I don't care that much about the downside. I care about the upside. And Tage Bradley clearly has a significant amount of upside.

With Tage Bradley, he is 66% rostered and the most added person. pictures on CBS right now are Jake Irvin, Drew Thorpe, and Hurston Waldrop. I think Taj Bradley goes to the top of the list. Yep, absolutely. You go with that, Scott? Yeah. Yep. And the thing that's interesting here is last year, his splitter was really good. 41% whiff rate, 188 expected Wobo allowed. He only threw it 14% of the time. Well, that was 25% of the time coming into this start. And then he just threw it 37 times, kind of ditched to the curveball. on cutter and just went for Seamer Splitter in this one. And, you know, I'm not 100% sure if that's an approach that can work for Tage Bradley,

but maybe he just commands those two pitches better and can make that approach work for him, just working, you know, north, south, aim for the center of the zone, let the fastball rise, let the splitter drop. And, you know, he can make that work. Maybe that's the approach that'll unlock something for him. But, yeah, this was an incredibly impressive start for him. and all of the whiffs came on the four seamer and Splitter. Splitter has been really, really good yet again this season.

So a lot to like about what we're seeing from, Taj Bradley. He pretty much just went with those two pitches and this one kind of ditched the curveball cutter. Not that I think he needs to do that to succeed, but that kind of shows you all that he has to work with. Where if he just wanted to strip it down to two pitches, he could still dominate like this. My player of the night is going to be Aaron Nola, but I'm going to save that for a little bit later because I do want to get to our prospect spotlight. A quick note on the oh my goodness gracious lineup of the night.

Three nights in a row, we get a double-digit runs scored. The D-backs, they scored 11 runs on nine hits, three homers. Christian Walker, two for five, with a double dong, four RBI, and he's just doing the same thing he's done each of the past two years. 258 batting average, 15 homers, 42 runs, It's 46 RBI, two steals, and 821 OPS. Christian Walker entered Thursday as the fourth best first baseman in Roto, a top 50 player in that format, and the sixth best first baseman in head to head points.

The other big performance in this one was Jock Peterson. He went two for four with his eighth home run, five RBI. He's had a fine season, 286 batting average, 887 OPS. The counting stats are a little bit low because he only plays against right-handed pitching. you know, that's what holds Jack Peterson's value. I don't want to say it holds it down because it both helps him

because he's really bad against lefties, but it also limits the upside for Peterson. He's 34% rostered. He's got six games next week. Three lefties on the schedule. So I don't think that we can recommend Jack Peterson at least not for next week. Nope, but I did recommend him for this week,

if you'll recall. There you go. All right, it's Friday. You know what time it is. It's time for another. Spotlight. Let's talk about Ray's outfield prospect Chandler Simpson, a 23-year-old, was the 70th overall pick back in 2022, and this season in the minors, a 364 batting average with just one homer. But wait for it, 47 steals in 51 games between high A and double A.

This comes one year after hitting 293 with 94 steals in the miners last season, and earlier in the day I texted Scott. Originally we were going to talk about Zach Fien. I want to wait for Zach Veen to get healthy. We'll talk about him on a future podcast. But I texted Scott and he said, which prospect do you want to talk about? He said, Chandler Simpson is kind of interesting,

but this doesn't seem like a prospect you'd normally be interested in. So talk to me, Scott. Why Chandler Simpson? Well, I mean, you read off the numbers there. Extremely high batting average over 360. the steals, you know, he's on like what would be better than 100 steel pace if they played a full major league amount of games. So, you know, there are those numbers.

It is true that I have often questioned as these prospects have emerged in recent years, Victor Scott being the latest example this year of the kind of slap hitting speedster, not a lot of profile, not a lot of power profile. Does this player, can this player even exist in the modern game? Is there room for this kind of player in the modern game? Because it's been so long since we've seen somebody be this. But I think what separates Chandler Simpson from somebody like Victor Scott, from somebody like Vidal Perujan,

from any of the other candidates for that that have emerged in recent years and have quickly dissolved is that more than any of any of, of them, Chandler Simpson understands the assignment. He is more like Willie Hayes from the original Major League than from the very, sorry, Willie Mays Hayes from the original Major League, than the very divisive sequel by which I mean, he is not interested in hitting for power at all. And the ways you can see this are the strikeout rate very low, just 9% between two levels this year. And he hardly ever puts the ball in the air. I don't have the exact number between the two levels because you can't really combine it like that.

But it's somewhere around like 25% his fly ball rate according to Fanggrass, which is very low. So he knows who he is. He knows that he just needs to get on base however he can and then run wild when he gets there. And he's actually doing it with that high batting average. It is to me a profile that's reminiscent of Juan Pierre, who was a great fantasy asset for a number of years, more so. than like a Billy Hamilton type. Like, just slap your way on base, however you need to, have a good batting average. Do kind of like a Luis Arise thing as a hitter, but then show off this blazing speed on the bases.

I'm still skeptical that it'll work for Chandler Simpson just because Juan Pierre, we're talking almost 20 years ago at this point since he was a thing. But I think if there's any chance of it working, it's somebody who has to be fully committed to it the way Chandler Simpson is. I want to quote noted therapist Tobias Fungay didn't want to use a different word

but I'm going to quote him you know Lindsay I'm going to be a slant quote you know Lindsay as a fantasy baseball analyst I have advised a number of people to explore slap hitting speed prospects like Xavier Edwards and Fidel Bruhan

and Victor Scott over the years well did it work for those people? No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but it might work out for Chandler Simpson. I don't actually believe it's going to work out for Chandler Simpson. That's Rich coming from the biggest Victor Scott fan coming into the year. I think the thing that often happens with these types of players, and you'll see Chandler Simpson walks a decent out, 10% walk rates along most of the major minor league level strikeout rates around 10% 12%. What often happens is as they climb up the ladder and pitchers can actually control their pitches,

what tends to happen is these guys just get the bat knocked out of their hands. And you can slap your way to a 340 average at AAA when the defenses are bad and pitchers can't throw their changeups for strikes and all that. stuff. Once you get to the majors, you tend to get solved pretty quickly. And like, Luis Arias is a one in a thousand type of player. And so I'm very skeptical of this profile. And and with Victor Scott, I agree. I agree. One of the things I tended to like about him was there was a little bit more non-slapped to his game. Like he wasn't running up, you know, 112 mile per hour average eggs of velocities or anything. But like in the miners, he was doing 86 mile per hour, exit velocities rather than Victor Robles, who was at like 83 miles per hour. That's

my concern is that it didn't work out for Victor Scott. Maybe there's a bigger hole in his swing or he just doesn't have, you know, as good contact skills. But it's a, it's a profile I tend to be very, very skeptical of. Agree. All right. Chandler Simpson was one of 12 hitters Scott wrote about in his latest prospect report. Make sure to check out that article, which is live on the site, CVSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. Quick reminder to download and follow

fantasy baseball today in five, wherever you listen to podcast. That's our five-minute podcast. We have a bonus prospect episode coming out every Saturday of the season. Let's take our first break, and when we return, we'll hit the news and notes right after this.

Welcome back in. Let's Talk News and Notes. Corey Seeger was scratched from the lineup Thursday after experiencing tightness in his hamstring. Again, Bruce Bochy said, Seeger is likely to be back in the lineup on Friday. Right.

Trey Turner progressed to running at 100% on Thursday and could be back early next week. Juan Soto has started three games in a row in right field, so it looks like we're in the clear for now. Cross your fingers. Hope everything's all right there with the forearm. Edwin Diaz was reinstated by the Mets on Thursday and wasted no time.

He pitched a scoreless ninth inning and wound up with the win. Wilson Contreras is hoping to begin a rehab assignment around June 18th. He's just five weeks into a projected 10-week timetable following surgery to repair a fractured left forearm. Clayton Kirschaw threw a three-inning simulated game

on Thursday and should head out on a rehab assignment at some point next week. Kodai Senga said his bullpen Wednesday went well. He's expected to have two more before her facing hitters. Nolan Aronado left Thursday's game after getting hit by a pitch in his hand X-rays came back negative

and Aronado is considered day-to-day. Randy Rosarena returned to the lineup after missing two games with right hamstring tightness. Taylor Ward and Logan O'Hoppy were both in the lineup Thursday after missing one game each. Ward with back tightness, Ohapi got hit in the groin with a foul tip.

Hope he's alright. Jorge Polanco ran the bases before Thursday's game and then went out on a rehab assignment He's been on the IL since May 26th with a hamstring injury. Thai France has a good chance of returning from the IL when first eligible Tuesday or very shortly thereafter. Tommy Pham will be activated from the IL on Friday. Eloy Jimenez began a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League on Thursday. And Alex Kirillov was optioned to AAA.

Austin Martin was recalled by the twins. Let's talk Waverwire pitchers. And Taj Bradley was the top name from Thursday, a couple others who stood out. Brandon fought a strong start against the Angels, six innings, one run. Eight strikeouts had 14 whiffs on 103 pitches. His velocity was up between 1 and 1.3 miles per hour on each of his main pitches. Michael Lorenzen turned in a strong start at the Dodgers,

seven innings, one run. Two strikeouts had 11 whiffs on 95 pitches and lean mostly on his four-scene fastball, changeup and cutter. that looks like a recipe for success. Those are probably his three best pitches. He throws, I don't know, usually like six or seven, but those are the best ones, and it obviously worked here. And Alec Marsh had the Yankees completely fooled.

Aaron Judge struck out four times on Thursday, and Marsh was a big reason for that. He looked really good. He threw seven shutout innings. One hit, two walks, seven strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 96 pitches. Previous three starts before this were really bad. this one was really good.

Chris, any interest in Marsh, Lorenzen, and Brandon Fott? I think they're all pretty fringy in terms of the talent. If I had to rank them, I'd probably go fought Mart. Fought Lorenzen and Marsh. I just don't think there's very much strikeout upside for Marsh. I know he looked good in this one, but Lorenzen, we know he's been around long enough. we saw something similar to this last season. He was really good for really the first four months of the season for the most part.

And then he fell apart and turned back into the, you know, just the overall numbers ended up being just decent. 418 ERA. That's more or less what I expect from him. He doesn't get a ton of strikeouts either. At least fought you can count on for close to a strikeout pre-a-ning moving forward, maybe a little bit more if that sweeper starts playing up. And he has taken a big step forward in terms of the quality of contact that he's allowing, which is allowed a 306XERA entering this start.

That was a big problem for him last year. Brandon Fott just got absolutely crushed. Give up a ton of home runs between the majors and his little playoff run. If he can be more of a strikeout per inning, maybe a 9.5K per 9 guy, and be a decent quality of contact guy, I think Fott can be somewhat useful. He's got the Nationals next week. I think he's a decent streamer there.

I think Fought's pretty good. He's been one of the biggest underachievers in terms of the ERA estimators. So he's got a 438 ERA now, but he has a 341 FIP, a 356X FIP, and an XERA, it's not updated with today, but it's in the low threes. It's the best of all of them.

and obviously has a great offense backing him in Arizona. So I think Fott needs to be more rastered than he is. I'm not totally dismissive of Marsh either. He is kind of not who I expected him to be coming into the year. He's doing a bit of the same thing Seth Lugo is doing. It's only six pitches instead of eight. but he's throwing a lot of pitches with a pretty balanced distribution between those pitches. And he mixed it up a lot against the Yankees.

He said that was his intention. He was trying to keep them off balance and just get ahead in the count. He was trying to throw things that he didn't normally throw in the counts where he was just trying to use all those options to his advantage to keep the Yankees guessing, basically. he managed to shut down that lineup with that approach. And we've seen a lot of pitchers who we thought were lacking in pure talent have a lot of success with that approach, especially this year. And so while I don't think Alec Marsh needs to be universally rostered or everything, spoiler alert, he's a sleeper pitcher for next week facing the athletics.

And he's only 37% rostered now. He's widely, widely available and probably doesn't need to be quite that available. I do agree with what you guys had to say about Brandon Fott. I think he's a little bit under-rastered as well. He is right at 73%, you know, any higher. You know, we're talking about like a must-raster pitcher, but those underlying numbers do look good. The strikeout to walk rate, very good for Brandon Fott.

I have this trio in my ranking 66, 67, 68 at starting pitcher. Tage Bradley, Matt Waldron, and Brandon Fott. Those are, I would say, over the past couple of of weeks, the most enticing pitchers that have come off the waiver wire, and they probably should not be on the waiver wire anymore. What the heck happened to Arandola? He got crushed at the Red Sox, three and two-thirds innings, 11 hits, eight runs allowed, only three strikeouts, only six swinging strikes on 90 pitches. He allowed nine hard hits in this start, 91.9 average exit velocity. The velocity was actually up quite a bit on all of his pitches across the board.

You know what's confusing with Aranola is the fact that he has a really good curveball. It kind of feels like he just throws his curveball more. He mixes in this change-up and cutter. They're just not good pitches. They have not been good pitches this year. The change-up has been good at times. I just, I don't know why pitchers insist on throwing pitches that, at least statistically, from what we could see, they just don't look like good pitches.

But I don't know. That was just like a random thing that came to my mind for Nola. obviously he was awesome in his previous five starts before this one. Chris, anything that actually stood out, worrisome here for Aranola? No, I don't think so. It's been interesting that he's been as effective as he has been this season with his velocity down, you know, almost a mile per hour. And then his velocities back up in this one,

up 1.2 miles per hour on the sinker, 1.4 on the curveball. And it's his worst start of the season. So I don't know quite what to make of that. I don't know if there's an overthrowing issue and he loses command when he's throwing a little harder. I don't really know, but his... Command was considered to be the problem last year. That's what he took steps toward improving

come post-season time because he was just leaving too many fastballs over the plate. And it's not a good fastball for him to do that. He has to paint the corners. So there may be something to what you're saying. Obviously, we're just theory. rising here. But yeah, it could be that he's better off taking something a little off because he's

able to spot it better. Now, the other thing is the whiff rates are way down on pretty much everything except for the fastballs so far this season, especially on those changeups and cutters that you mentioned, Frank. He had a 15% whiff rate with the change up, 14% with the cutter coming into the start. both were over 30% last season. So if he can't get those back, yeah,

he should probably scrap those pitches because in the past, they've been decent quality of contact pitches, but not enough to justify if they're going to not get whiffs like that. But that's never really been a problem before. They were above 30% whiff rates in 2023. They were right at 28 and 29% in 2022.

So I do expect those pitches to perform better moving forward. and you know, Nola, what's he at? Like a 3.4 ERA now? He is right at 3.48. That, you know, maybe a little lower than that, I would expect moving forward, but that's probably where he should be. So I don't know if I'm concerned about anything we saw today. Yeah, the changeup in Cutter, I mean,

I get that you have to probably throw them more to, you know, to up those numbers and up the whiff rates and figure something out. But I don't know, as long as they're not performing, maybe just put them on ice a little bit and lean into other things that are working, but just something weird that stood out to me from Arenola. Garrett Crochet was not the only reliever-turned-starter who pitched really well again on Thursday.

Ronaldo Lopez continues to dominate. He was at the Orioles. He threw six shot-out innings, two hits, one walk. Eight strikeouts had 18 whiffs on 91 pitches. Nine of those came on the fastball. And interestingly enough, He actually cut his slider usage in half in this start, and he used more curves and changeups. The slider is pretty much his best pitch.

It's the bread and butter here for Ronaldo Lopez, and he still managed to have a really, really dominant start. His 169 ERA, if I saw this correctly earlier, I believe it now leads all of baseball in ERA, which is... That sounds right, yeah. Which is pretty crazy stuff for Ronaldo Lopez. Scott, do you think we're too low in the ranking? on Lopez? I don't know. He leads baseball in ERA.

It's pretty good. Yeah, I've wrestled with it. He hasn't gotten as much attention as other major ERA overachievers like Ranger Suarez and Seth Lugo. So I've been slower in moving him up, but he's, well, he's a better strikeout pitcher than Seth Lugo anyway. I guess the rate's pretty similar to Rangers Juarez. and in theory he has a good offense backing him. No, it hasn't played like that so far this year. He's gotten a lot of wins.

No, he hasn't gotten a lot of wins, as he? I'm thinking of Chris Sale. He hasn't gotten a lot of wins. Forget that part. Yeah, this was his fourth, right? I actually saw an interview with Alex Anthopolis during the start. I was watching this game, and he said, you know, we weren't expecting this. We were thinking he actually gave a number.

We were expecting a mid to high threes ERA from Reynaldo Lopez. And, you know, obviously they probably weren't thinking the offensive environment would be what it is this year. And that probably has had some effect on it. But, you know, Reynaldo Lopez, pretty good strikeout rate, a really good swinging strike rate. And what I've noticed since I watch a lot of Braves games, I've seen them a lot. And I'm hesitant to put much stock in my observations. You know, a lot of people think, oh, well, the most valuable opinion comes from watching a game. But I feel like it's just the opposite.

I feel like the numbers don't lie, right? I trust the numbers more than what I'm observing when I'm watching somebody play. But what I've observed with Reinaldo Lopez is that his command is exceptional. He is incredible at spotting the ball on the corners, on the edges, out of the heart of the plate. And I think that's been a key to his success. Does that mean he can sustain a sub two or even sub three ERA? I sincerely doubt it. But is he going to be somebody who's worth using in fantasy all season long?

I'm definitely leaning yes on that by now. So the thing with Lopez and with Seth Lugo and Michael Lorenzen, although they're not all on the same level, but just as examples of this type is it's been happening for two and a half months now. And the comments that I'll see are it keeps happening and it's been two and a half months. And at some point, you have to stop being skeptical. This is what people will tell us when we rank these guys low. And I'm lower on Lugo. I would assume I'm lower on Lopez than you guys are as well. And the thing I always need to stress is while two months feels like a long time in the process of it happening, it isn't.

Like in the grand scheme of understanding who baseball players are, two months is a really small sample. says a month is smaller, roughly half of two months, but two months just isn't as much as it feels like. And to prove that point, here is who was leading the majors in ERA at this point last year. Eduardo Rodriguez, a fine pitcher had a 4.24 ERA the rest of the way. That was probably roughly average.

I think Reynaldo Lopez can be a little better than average moving forward. Probably exactly what Alex Anthopoulos thought he would be. Right. That's, yeah, like his XERA entering today was 385. He's got an above average strikeout rate and above average walk rate and below average quality of contact so far. I think you add it all up and it's a fine pitcher. Use him while he's hot by all mean. if we set the ERA over under at 3.75 the rest of the way,

I think I'd take the over, but I think it'll be close. That's a good number. That's a good number. It kind of depends how much the offensive environment normalizes because I hear 375 and I think what a 375 ERA was last year versus the very bad number that the 375 ERA is this year. Sure, maybe it's a 36 ERA. like whatever like a 55th or 60th percentile mark among starters would be.

I think he will be better than ever. And this also goes for Seth Lugo. Like I think they will be useful. I don't think we have to look at Raynaldo Lopez and Seth Lugo and other guys like that and say, well, they're they've got sub two ERAs for two and a half months. They have to be stars now. I don't. Yeah.

Right. And I've used the Bryce Lowe. example from Bryce Elder is a very good John Gray was like a top seven starter in ERA early on last year

I there are always I do think I do think Rinaldo Lopez is succeeding in a more conventional way

than Bryce Elder was because he has more than a strike up winning he has the 12% swinging strike rate but no he's not going to

lead the majors in ERA or the other point that's worth making specifically with Rinalda Lopez he has a RP eligible in head-to-head points

leagues. So all the stuff about he's useful but not special, that might not apply in a head-to-head points league. He might just be a must-start guy in head-to-head points league because he's an RP. All right, let's quickly talk some waiver wire hitters before we get to our week 13 preview

and J.D. Martinez walked it off for the Mets. He went two-for-four with a double and his sixth home run. Added 2 RBI. He's betting 271 with six homers, a 785 OPS. Has done a better job recently lowering the strikeout rate, it's down to 28%. Last year, it was 31%. For most of the season, it was up over 30%. So looks like he's made an effort to lower the strikeout rate,

and still remains just 65% roster. Do you guys think J.D. Martinez just has to be like closer to 100% must roster hitter at this point? There are a lot of teams that I have with like Vladimir Guerrero in the utility spot or Shohei O'Don. in the utility spot where I just, I look at a utility only player on the waiver and I'm just like, there's no point. So that's the thing that's tough. If you've got a hole at utility, sure.

But it's just, it's hard to look at a player who's utility only and say they are must roster unless they are an absolute star. And I don't think JD Martinez is that. He could become that. I mean, obviously he was last year. He has been for most to, the last seven, eight years, whatever it is.

But yeah, I mean, at this point, you're talking how shallower lineup leagues, head-to-head leagues, 65% is probably about right, because I don't think he's at a point where you can start him in those shallower leagues. Yeah, and if you can't start him, then it's hard to justify keeping him around. In that sort of context, he should be rostered in every roto league, but with a 65% roster rate, I imagine he is. All right, two corner infielder's coming around lately.

Jake Berger went one for three with his sixth home run. Last 16 games, he's betting 328 with three homers, 11 run scored, 93.5 average exit velocity, 59% rostered is Jake Berger. And Andrew Vaughn went 2 for 5 with his eighth home run. Last 16 games, betting 323, 5 homers, 12 runs, 92.6 average exit velocity. Scott, are you buying into either one of these corner infielders slowly coming around?

Well, to a degree, I mean, I like Jake Berger a lot coming in. I will point out that during this 16-game stretch where the hitting has improved, he's still striking out 29% of the time, very high rate. And so we're not seeing the strikeout improvement that we saw after he joined the Marlins last year. Even during us hottest stretch of the season, we're not seeing that. And so particularly in a more punishing offensive. environment for hitters. I think he's going to have a hard time moving the needle with that kind of strikeout rate.

So I am encouraged to a degree, but I'm not rushing out to pick up Jake Berger in every league where he was dropped or anything like that. Vaughn, yeah, it's better numbers. It's better numbers over a similar stretch of time, 16 games. It's going to take a lot more than that to convince me that this is finally the breakthrough for Andrew Vaughn. And obviously, he doesn't have a lot of help around him in that White Sox lineup. So I think if you want to pick him up as a hot hand play, I wouldn't object to it too much.

Obviously, there's a need for hot hand plays with so few trustworthy starters in the hitting ranks right now. But I'm not sold on Andrew Vaughn being like. this sudden breakout or anything. I need to see a lot more. Last two names in deeper leagues. Justin Henry Malloy had himself a nice game, two for three with a double and his second home run. It was 107.9 exit velocity, 407 feet. And Justin Henry Maloy has started eight of nine games for the Tigers since being recalled.

Lower batting average so far, but 367 on base percentage, hitting the ball hard, pulling the ball. I think there could be something there. Any leagues with corner infielers, you know, we were just talking about hot hand approaches. Justin Henry Malloy might turn out to be one of those. And Tyler Soderstrom has turned up the power this week, one for four, with his fourth home run, his third homer in the past four games. And you might be looking for a catcher replacement, you know, if you lost J.C. Real Muto. And so I think Soder Shram could be a fine second catcher if you lost it.

CBS, one of the few platforms where Soder Strom is catcher eligible. you have Uncle Scott to thank for that. Thank you, Uncle Scott. There is an objective standard behind it, and I'm not going to bore you with the details, but, you know, it wasn't just willy-nilly. I gave Soderstrom catcher eligibility, but yeah.

I will point out, you know, not saying Soderstrom is a must-ad catcher, yeah, but he started eight straight at first base. Eight straight games, though. 14% K-rate during that eight-game stretch versus his 32% rate. on the season. So obviously in-experienced guy, we could see him start to find more comfort at the play at the major league. Maybe we could see that strikeout rate come down permanently. If that

happens for Tyler Soderstrom, then we may be on to something. All right. Let's take our final break. And when we return, we will get into the week 13 preview right after this. Welcome back in. Let's preview week 13. The schedule for next week. Three teams have seven games, the Rockies, Brewers, and Padres. 26 teams have six games, and one unlucky team has five games. The Angels. What about the Rockies? I just mentioned they have seven games next week.

All of them are at home. Yes. Four against the Dodgers and three against the Nationals. Starters sit these fringe two-star pitchers, and we'll alternate. We'll go Scott and Chris. And, you know, Chris, you've been around for this before. You either say they're good to start in all leagues, head to points only, or avoid at all costs. That's complicated, but I think I can figure it out.

Yeah, there you go. You got it. First up is John Gray. He is facing the Mets and the Royals. The problem with John Gray, he only threw three innings in his last outing. Chris, what do you think on John Gray? I'd probably prefer only head to head points, but I think that would be my answer for most of these guys, and that's going to be boring. So, yeah. Okay.

Javier Assad is up against the Giants and the Mets. What do you think, Scott? Yeah, that's definitely a points league one for me. Probably we're doing since he's RP eligible, and that's where that matters most, the points format. But don't see much use in him in Roto leagues or categories leagues at this point. Chris, it might be the same exact answer for Jordan Hicks, who is at the Cubs and at the Cardinals.

Yeah, I mean, the thing about Jordan Hicks is the results for the most part have been very good this season. And you would assume a pitcher gets like four two-star weeks a year, and those might be the only four times that Jordan Hicks throws more than five and a third innings in a week. So, yeah, I'd start him in most formats, I would say. All right, Scott. Your boy, Rees Olson is at the Braves and home against the White Sox.

Two of the best matchups in baseball. You know, that's true. And I was trying to think in terms of the Braves being a good matchup. It didn't work out so well for, Paul Irvin here on Thursday for what it's worth. But, yeah, I was viewing that just reflexively as, oh, one really bad matchup, one really good matchup. I probably need to move Resolson up in the two-star pitcher rankings. Probably still just a points league situation with the way his last couple turns had gone,

but I had him in the no-thanks section originally. So, yeah, I'm going to bump him up a little. maybe put him in the in the sleeper pitchers for this week, recognizing that the Braves are pretty good matchup, pretty favorable matchup for pitchers right now. Chris, can I interest you in Aaron Savali at the Twins and at the Pirates, or is that a no-things? Yeah, I mean, the joke I made about Jordan Hicks only throwing six innings in a two-start week

kind of also applies to Aaron Savale, who hasn't done that since April 16th after doing it three times in his first five starts. Yeah, that's a point only one for me. I do not trust Aaron Savali, despite a good start today. And then a whole bunch of stayaways. There are lots of two-star pitchers next week. It looks like a large majority of them are bad.

Let's talk about some two-star pitchers that are pretty good, ones that you might want to add in stream. Scott, over to you. All right. Well, not as many this week. Did you just say there was a lot? You're wrong. There's not many at all.

Two-star pitchers? Yeah. The list you sent me. It seemed like there were so many. No, there's three. And the three on here. Oh, no, no, no. I just meant two-star pitchers in general.

There's a lot of two-star pitchers, but a lot of them are bad. There's 31. Anyway. Yeah. It seems like a lot. Jake Irvin is my favorite, but his matchups are against the diamondbacks and at the Rockies. So that's where we're starting here. And that's actually the case for a lot of the good but not great pitchers who are in line for two starts.

They're just bad matchups. So that goes for Michael King. It goes for Yusay Kikuchi. It goes for Christopher Sanchez. That goes for Jake Irvin. You're probably starting them all with two starts, even if the matchups are bad. Just because Chris said. I kind of was trying to do the math in my head real quick.

Is it really only four two-star weeks a pitcher gets during the season? And that's probably about right. I mean, I imagine some might get closer to six, but not many more than that. So, yeah, got to put them out there for the two-star week. If we think Jake Irvin's good and we said after his last start that we do. Okay, Braxton Garrett has better matchups. He gets the Cardinals and the Mariners. Unfortunately, he's been awful lately.

and I'm a little skeptical of the upside anyway. Slider hasn't been playing as well this year. But those matches are really good, so I think in points leagues anyway, you could go with Braxton Garrett. And finally, Tristan McKenzie, definitely just a points league play with as bad as his control is. But two great matchups, Mariners and Blue Jays.

And we already mentioned them, but I guess I have to add Reese Olson to this list with the Braves and White Sox. I think I'd rather start Reese Olson than Tristan McKenzie, right? I think so. I think so. Chris, what do you think? Reese Olsen versus Tristan McKenzie. I would go with Reese Olson.

Yeah. What about Javier Assad versus Reese Olson? Just how do you guys do the rankings for me here. I think I would go with Assad. I don't know how you account for RP eligibility there. If that doesn't matter, I think I'd go Olson, but in a points league, I'd start Assad. Okay. All right.

What about the single-star streamers? You have a lot more names on this list. Yeah, because I got to fill 10 spots, and I only have three-two-star pitchers on there. Okay, so Hunter Brown's been great, and he gets the White Sox. Pretty easy there. Tage Bradley,

middle of the road matchup against the Twins, but after what he just did to the Cubs, I think we all feel good about that. Kyle Gibson, been very solid, and he gets the Marlins this week. Brandon Fought, coming off a great start here Thursday. It's a pretty good matchup.

Chris Paddock was great last time and he gets Oakland. Alec Marsh coming off this great start Thursday. Oakland is his next matchup. And finally, Drew Thorpeer at Detroit. Detroit's actually climbed the offensive ranks a little bit. They've outscored the Braves now for the season. Wow. But I think they're still in the lower third in run.

scored. Oh, they're 18th. I don't believe they'll stay 18th. I still think they're a pretty good matchup there for Drew Thorpe. So he's on the list as well. I would agree with that.

Chris, of these single-star streamers, who is your favorite rest of season, not just for next week? Oh, rest of season is probably Taj Bradley, but I am starting to talk myself into Hunter Brown. He also has a really good matchup this weekend

against Detroit, although you know, they're no longer bottom third run scored. I don't know if you guys heard. No. So no. But yeah, he's been really solid basically since the start of May. All right. Let's talk hitters.

The best matchups for next week. The Dodgers, the Nationals, Rockies, Cardinals, and Brewers. The worst hitter matchups. Astros, Rays, Guardians, Angels, and Marlins. With that being said, oh yeah. I see his name, Jesse Winker. Per my recommendation yesterday, Scott put him on the list.

I'm just kidding. Who are your sleeper hitters, Scott, for week 13? Did you go through the number of games every team has? Because it's a pretty interesting. I did up top. Yeah, it was three teams. Only three teams have seven games and the Rockies are one of them, all seven being at home. And only one team has five games.

That's the Angels. You mentioned there they have the fourth worst matchups. Okay. So sleeper hitters with the nationals having the best matchups, they're one of the two teams. visiting the Rockies in Colorado. Jesse Winkers on here. Because it's only one left-hander on the schedule, Luis Garcia is also on here.

I also have Jacob Young on here just because, you know, get as many nationals as they can on here as with his favorable as those matchups are. He can steal you at a lot of bases. So three nationals on the list. Top of the list is actually Joseph Ortiz, with the Brewers being one of the three teams

playing seven games, and only one left. on the schedule. Ortiz numbers are especially good against right handers, if you can believe it. But he is dealing with a hamstring injury right now. It's not expected to put him on the IEL, but if he doesn't return over the weekend, then obviously can't trust Ortiz as a sleeper hitter. But I'm assuming he will. That's why he's at the top of the list. Andy Paez is on this list as well. I know we might be suffering from some Andy Paas fatigue because he's been on this list so often and hasn't always lived up to it.

Though he did Homer Thursday. So maybe, no, he's actually got pretty good numbers in June. So I think he's coming around again. And the Dodgers have the very best matchups. They are the other team visiting the Rockies this week and for four games. So count on Pahas to take advantage of that. You mentioned the Cardinals have the fourth best matchups. I like Alec Berluson to take advantage of that.

The twins did not quite crack the list of best matchups. here, but they weren't far off. I think Willie Castro, who is one of the most consistently in the lineup for them, and is eligible at five different, four different positions, something like that. I think four different positions.

Not first base. And, but if you do have first base, his teammate, Carlos Santana, who's been hot here in June, he can also take advantage of those matchups. And then the really deep play for this week is Spencer Horwitz.

The Blue Jays don't face a single left-hander, so I think we can trust him to start every game, and he's been, no, he's been batting leadoff when he's been in the lineup. He's been getting hits consistently. Not a big power guy, but I think could be useful in a week like this, where he can count on him to play every day. All right, did want to quickly note you mentioned Andy Pahas, what he's done in June. Some people might say,

while he was slumping before that. He did have a rough May, but in 11 June games, Pahas batting 378 with two homers and a 1057 OPS. So I agree, Scott. I sign off on your Andy Pahez recommendation for next week.

Let's wrap up with some leftovers, and we will first start with some pitchers, part one. Joe Ryan, quality start against Oakland, seven innings, two runs. Five strikeouts had 14 whiffs on 95 pitches. Justin Steele was awesome at Tampa Bay, six shutout, five strikeouts, had 13 whiffs on 93 pitches, last four starts for Steele.

It's a 0.72 ERA and a one whip on the nose. Tanner Hauke turned in a quality start against the Phillies, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts. He now leads all of baseball with 12 quality starts this season. Chris, anything on Halk, Steele, and Joe Ryan? No, I think these guys are all pretty much awesome. If I could say something on Justin Steele here real quick, because I feel like the vibes have been bad. Last year, Justin Steele had a 306 ERA 117 whip 9.1K per 9. Obvious Cy Young contender can't say anything bad about him without getting torches and pitchforks at your door.

This year, Justin Steele 322ERA 109 whip 8.4. 6K per 9. Q. Pam from the office meme. It's the same picture. The thing is, if you're going to pitch well

and then poorly or poorly and then well, it's much better for your cue rating if you pitch well early. That establishes in people's brains that you're pitching well. And then if you pitch poorly for a month,

it's like, yeah, who cares? Is ERA's 322? But if you pitch poorly at the start and then pitch well, it's like, that's the distinction there. Paul Goldschmidt quietly coming around, one for four with his eighth home run. Last 28 games, Goldschmidt is batting 270 with six homers, 17 runs, 16 RBI, and two steals. That's a 32 home run pace over 150 games. It's probably close to what we were expecting from Paul Gulchmidt.

Chris, I don't think that he's fully back, but over the last. last month, he's looked a lot like Paul Gulchman. Yeah, I think it's fair to assume that he's not going to get quite to where he was last year, certainly not where he was a couple years ago, but players usually aren't as bad as they look at their worst moments. And that's probably true of Paul Gulchman, the cat's eating now. Time to eat. His strikeout rate is still pretty elevated during this good stretch.

Yeah, I will note. It's 26% last 28 games. And last year, it was around 23%. So it was 20, it was exactly 26% in the second half. So he's kind of, I don't know that he's getting that back at his age. Yeah. Other hitting leftovers, Ozzy Albies turned in the first four game hit of the season, four for five with two doubles and two runs scored.

Yandy Diaz has multiple hits in five of his past six games. He's hitting for batting average in June. That's not the problem. He still only has four home runs on the season. That is the problem. Tyler O'Neill, two for five with his 12th home run that came off of Aranola. Carlos Correa has really enjoyed facing the A's,

three for four with his sixth home run, two runs three RBI, just a huge series for him. Luis Robert is basically just hitting home runs and nothing else. He has six hits since coming off the IL. Five of those are homers. Wyatt Langford is running a little bit since returning. He went two for four with two RBI and two steals

in 13 games since coming off the IL. 271 batting average, one double, two triples, three steals. Still looking for his first home run over the fence. He has one homer this year. It was an inside the park home run. Just a weird season. It's a rookie, whatever. Wyatt Langford.

And Jazz Chisholm had himself a game, two for four with a sock and a shoe, his 10th home run, his 13th steel. Anything to add here? Lots of, I guess, kind of interesting names. Anyone stand up? I feel like the vibes have been bad. I don't know why I keep using that expression, but I feel like they've been bad for Jazz Chisholm as well.

Scott's a big vibes guy. I feel like Jazz Chisholm is just doing, like we should all be happy with what Jazz Chisholm's doing because he is one early round hitter who's actually done exactly what he's supposed to do, hitting his usual 254, batting average, 25 homer, 30, steel pace. I think the run an RBI pace sucks

because he's in the Marlon's lineup. But, you know, as long as he's healthy, he's obviously a must start borderline elite outfielder, I would say. I will say, yeah, he's a top 20 outfielder for me in Roto especially. I will say I'm not certain how long he's going to be held back by the Marlins lineup. I don't know if his name has come up in any trade rumors, but it feels like the Marlins should probably try to trade him. And I would guess if what we know about this front office coming from

the raise seems like a guy they'd want to want to try to sell. So that's just my feel for things. Yeah, I mean, we if we're hearing rumors that the White Sox are listening on Luis Robert, why wouldn't the Marlins listen on jazz, right? It's, it's not the craziest thing. If, if those teams are just going into full-on rebuilds, like, maybe they can get that gallon from them. They can listen on jazz while they're listening to jazz.

Do I have? No, I don't have the, uh, sometimes I have that, that, that's, saxophone loaded up in the soundboard. I don't have it ready to go though. Some bullpen updates for the Braves. Rice L. Iglesias allowed a hit but picked up his 17th save. For the Yankees, Clay Holmes got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on three hits, took his fourth-blown save and second loss.

For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley was unavailable. It was Andrew Kittridge, who picked up his first save. For Tampa Bay, Pete Fairbanks walked one, but picked up his ninth save for the Marlins. Tanner Scott got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. a walk-off two-run homer to J.D. Martinez. For the White Sox, Michael Copac entered the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a game-tying home run to Julio Rodriguez.

He took his fourth-blown save. The White Sox took the lead in the 10th, and then lefty Tanner Banks struck out two for his second save. And in the Rangers game, Kirby Yates picked up his 10th save of the season. He struck out three and walked one. In the original Mission Impossible movie, wasn't there a bad guy named Kittridge? I just, the way you said Kittridge, it just took me back.

And I had this visual of Tom Cruise yelling, Ketridge. Am I making that up? I think Eugene Kittridge has been in multiple missions Impossible. Oh, really? He was in Dead Reckoning, the one that came out. last summer as well. I think I only saw the first two is the thing. They've gotten better.

They're very good movies. Do you guys think I have seen Mission Impossible? Trick question? Oh, you haven't seen Mission Impossible. Impossible. Adam Sandler's not in it. It's a problem. No, I haven't seen it.

I haven't seen a single mission. They're good movies, man. Good movies. Yeah, but are they... Tom Cruise drives a motorcycle off a cliff. Are they much better than watching the same Adam Sandler movie 10 more times. It's, I don't know.

It's close. All right, let's do to stream or not to stream for Friday. And I think yesterday we said Kyle Gibson, Hunter Brown, and Simeon Woods, Richardson. There's also Tyler Anderson at the Giants. It's kind of going sideways lately. Yeah. I would stick with the first three, you said. All right.

On Saturday, what do we have here? Anybody fun? Not really. I guess. Yeah, that's pretty bad. I'll throw out Patrick Sandoval at the Giants. Throwing out. That's the proper phrasing.

Oh, gosh. Yeah, I don't really like anybody from Saturday. I mean, like Andrew Abbott keeps doing it, but I don't believe it at all. I'm not going to do that against Milwaukee. Yeah. Like, the thing with Andrew Abbott is the XERA is actually quite good, which just shocking, and I don't buy it, but it is happening. Weird coincidence, Adam Major will be pitching in New York this weekend.

Wow, maybe him and Adam Azer can meet up. Adam Azer and Adam Major in the same building, it could happen. I don't want to start anybody from Saturday either, but because it's not helpful to people to name nobody. I'm going to throw a wild card at you, Andre Payante. Against the Cubs. All right. Groundball pitcher. I was going to say, load up those ground balls.

You're getting a ton of them. What about on Sunday? Miles Michaelis is pitching quite well lately. He's at the Cubs. That's fine. There's Mitchell Parker against the Marlins. That's also fine. That's really good. That's the best one of the weekend, Mitchell Parker. You know, there's lots of interesting names. I'll just throw them out there. You tell me your favorites.

Hurston Waldrop against the Rays. Tyler McGill against the Padres. Spencer Arroghetti has pitched well recently. He's facing the Tigers. Chris Paddock against Oakland Drew Thorpe at Arizona Yeah, I think there's five or six that are worth considering I think I probably like all those guys more than

anyone from Saturday Dane Dunning facing the team that strikes out the most In Major League history So who I'm not, who did I miss? Chris Paddock's going against Oakland So he's going to have Oakland this weekend and Oakland next week. Yeah

That's unfortunate But I guess we get a little sneak peek here If you're debating Chris Paddock for next week I think Mitchell Parker and Chris Paddock are my favorite two here from Sunday. I think that's fair. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.