Fantasy Baseball Today - Gavin Stone's Career Start, Adrian Del Castillo Hype & Austin Riley Replacements! (8/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Gavin Stone struck out a career-high 10 on Monday (2:40)! ... Adrian Del Castillo might be great (7:40)? ... News (15:23): Austin Riley has a fractured hand, which means you need replacements. ... How do we rank TJ Friedl, Masataka Yoshida, Jake McCarthy and JJ Bleday (28:55)? ... Kyle Harrison and David Peterson had strong starts (33:00). ... Tanner Houck bounced back in a big way while Taj Bradley continues to struggle (41:01). ... Which hitters are heating up and cooling down over the last 28 days (46:15)? ... We wrap up with bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (55:45). 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

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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, August 20th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, a sincere apology to Scott and all the other Braves fans out there

because it turns out we need Austin Riley replacements. We also had a pitcher's duel out in L.A. Adrian Del Castillo might be awesome. He had a huge game. And we are bringing back 28 days later because kind of a smaller slate needs some stuff to talk about. So we will look at some hitters

who are both streaking up and shrieking down and much more. But let's jump right in. In a year that has been, so improbable, the impossible has happened. Well, Scott, the impossible happened on Monday because Gavin Stone had an amazing start. He did.

He did against a bad Mariners lineup, and he has a second start this week against a bad race lineup. So he might have made sense as a two-stared sleeper, if not for the fact that in his previous seven starts, Gavin Stone had a 612 ERA, a 170 whip, and 7K per 9. I'm just not going to do that, you know? I'm just a pitcher who I wasn't totally sold on his skill set in the first place,

having a seven-start stretch with a 170 whip. I don't know. I couldn't get behind that, but Gavin Stone did manage to come through against this Mariners lineup, but a big way. seven shutout innings, two hits, 10 strikeouts. Got a lot of whiffs on his change-up. 15 whiffs total, eight on the change-up. That's, of course, his best pitch is most thrown pitch.

But I don't know that there's, there are any signifiers of, like, some kind of process change here for Gavin Stone. During that awful seven-start stretch, he had a start against Oakland where he gave up five runs on eight hits, and four innings. And it's changed. I've got a ton of whiffs in that start too. And it's not like even when he gets whiffs, it translates to a big strikeout rate. Usually, I don't know.

I'm not seeing a lot to get excited about here. If you're playing a league with daily lineup changes again, he has another start coming up later this week against the Rays. And I think after this start, you could think about streaming him for that one. but I don't know that my rest of season prognosis has changed here for Gavin Stone. Yeah, and I don't mean to pile on, but this was just his first quality start since that complete game shutout he had all the way back on June 26th. So that basically coincides with that stretch that you mentioned, Scott, where Gavin Stone was pretty bad before this start.

I still think there are some pieces there. We know the change-up is awesome. The slider looks like a really good pitch. those two accounted for 12 of his 15 whiffs in the start. The 10 strikeouts, by the way, a career high for Gavin Stone. So I think the secondaries are really good. It's just that his fastball and his sinker, they get hit quite a bit and give up lots of hard contact. So I don't know if he still has to tinker with the pitch mix and just find that right mix to figure everything out.

But there are ingredients. He just needs to kind of figure everything out. but an awesome start here for Gavin Stone. Let's just stay in that game and talk about the other side because Brian Wu is on a nice little run here. We talked about him last week as well at the Dodgers and they start six in a third innings, two runs, five strikeouts, only had seven whiffs on 87 pitches.

Continues to lean on that four-scene fastball, which is a really, really good pitch for Brian Wu. Some questions about the rest of the arsenal here for Brian Wu, but this is now four straight quality starts. He's gone seven innings, two of those 85 plus pitches in each of those four starts. And for a large majority of the season, Scott, we were just kind of worried about the workload

and the injury scares, which were plentiful for Brian Wu. But now he's throwing lots of pitches. He's, the endings have been there. And I'm not saying he's a must-star pitcher, but I think we're getting maybe close to that point. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, for as long as he holds up,

and I'm, I've, I would say I'm less concerned about the forearm than ever at this point, considering his last four starts have been as long as four starts of the season. And I wish he got more strikeouts, Brian Wu, but everything else looks good. Stackcast loves him. His expected ERA coming into this start is 223, which don't really get any better than that from an expected ERA.

Of course, the actual ERA is, did it go above 2.23 with this, two runs in six and a third innings? It's a 212, so it's pretty much right there. A lot of fly balls, but weak fly balls, and so they turn into outs. He's good at hip prevention. He's one of the best control pitchers, so he's good at base runner prevention in general, and that's why he has that 0.83 whip does Brian Wu, and I think I would be looking to start him. at least most of the time. His next matchup, let's see, is against the Giants.

So definitely want to use him for that one. Yep, again, that was Brian Wu. We had ourselves a nice little pitcher's duel out in L.A. where both he and Gavin Stone

were pretty awesome in that one. Let's talk about another player who was awesome, Adrian Del Castillo, who, I don't know, might be a stud. The bar is not very high

at the catcher position. I know it's a really small sample size, but my good What a game here. Two for four with a grand sock in the shoe. That's right. A grand slam in this one. Six RBI. A grand sock. A grand sock. That's right. It's like the child of your sock's child. Yeah. A sock that has been passed down in generations. Yeah. Something like that. I don't know if that really was. I don't know. It sounded funny. Yeah. I didn't I didn't land the joke very well, but it sounded funny. A homecoming for Adrian Del Castillo, who's actually from Miami. Yeah, just huge game. He's homered in back-to-back games.

He's only played nine games so far. 333 batting average, three homers, 14 RBI, one steal, a 1072 OPS. He was crushing it in the minors as well. 319 batting average, 24 homers, a 10-10 OPS. Now, there are some not so great things going on

with the plate discipline. It's a 35% strikeout rate, you know, questionable zone contact. But he's making the most of his, the opportunity right now, and he's only 18% rostered. Scott, what are your thoughts here on Adrian Del Castillo? Well, it should probably be rostered in more than 18% of leagues at this point. And I don't know if I'm ready to make the leap to stud when the guy's still available in 80% of leagues. But there's a lot to like about Adrian Del Castillo, as I've said all along.

Of course, the minor league numbers were ridiculous. 319, 403, 608 is what he slashed 24 homers in 100 games, good walk rate, low strikeout rate, and the underlying plate discipline numbers were good for Adrian Del Castillo, too. As you point out, he struck out at a 35% rate in the major so far, and he'll need to do better than that, but we have evidence that he can't do better than that. So I think that's reason for optimism. He has sat against every lefty but one. The Diamondbacks happen to have faced a lot of lefties lately. So hopefully he will sit less often in general moving forward. But that is another potential obstacle here for Del Castillo,

him being a left-handed hitter. Makes sense that he'd sit against left-handed pitchers for now. But off to a promising start, I would say. And does he need to be picked up in one-catcher leagues? As we've said often on this show, the threshold is so low at catcher that even if I'm not going to call him a top 12 catcher rest of season

like if you want to just dump Ryan Jeffers or whatever for him like there's not a lot of downside to it because nobody's going to you're not going to get boxed out at catcher nobody's picking one up to start them at utility or anything like that there will always be a boring option to fall back on if Adrian Del Castillo doesn't work out

and of course in two catcher leagues he absolutely needs to be rostered at this point Yeah, 100% in two catcher leagues. Who would you rather add between Del Castillo and Joey Bart, who has been pretty good for quite some time? I'm inclined to rank Joey Bart higher, but Del Castillo feels more exciting. And if you want to pursue that for the reasons I just laid out,

there's not a lot of downside to it. What about Austin Wells versus Del Cassio? I think I'm going to go Wells because he's been good for so long. long at this point. But that's that's a close call. I like again it wouldn't be a I wouldn't have a major objection if you just wanted to to latch on to the sizzle of del Castillo for now. I guess one potential obstacle is once Gabriel Moreno is set to return, which we haven't really had an update in a while, but he's on the aisle with a left adductor strain. And that happened back on August 8th. And at the time it said he was expected to miss several.

weeks of action. Yeah, it was a grade two, right? So, you know, he's probably going to miss the rest of August, but once we get to September, do they keep, you know, both catchers around, how much playing time would be there? Christian Walker's going to be back at some point, so it's not like the DH is going to be available. So, you know, there could be a crunch at some point. Like short term, I think, again, you can add him, but by the time we get to September, there, there could be a crunch at some point. Yeah, I feel like that's a, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it situation, like until we get reports of Gabriel Moreno,

set to begin a rehab assignment. It's just not worth worrying about because that is the sort of injury that could sideline him the rest of the season, theoretically. All right, again, Adrian Del Castillo with a massive game here on Monday before we hit the break. Do want to promote something with our friends

from Fantasy Football today. Their draftathon is rapidly approaching Wednesday, August 28th. It's usually from like 6 p.m. to 11, something like that, and they have a bunch of guests on, and they get everyone ready for their fantasy football drafts. I think they do a mock draft, and so it's going to be a ton of fun. Again, that's coming up next Wednesday, August 28th, and they're raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital. So if you are watching, scan the QR code or go to tiny URL.com slash draftathon 2024, and they're constantly auctioning off

things like fantasy football mock drafts with their experts, spots in their listener league for this season, and much more. I have been told that FBT related items will be auctioned off as well. I think a spot in our listener league for next year, some pre-draft Zoom calls. So keep a lookout on those.

And again, everything from this draftathon will be donated to St. Jude Children's Hospital, August 28th. So make sure to be on the lookout for that and go to the website and check it out. Let's take our first break, and when we return,

the news and notes. The bad news on Austin Riley. We'll get to that right after this. Welcome back in, the news and notes, and the Braves' nightmare season continues. This time, it's Austin Riley, who has a fractured right hand

and will miss approximately six to eight weeks, effectively ending his regular season here for fantasy. I guess, is there a chance he could be back in the playoffs, Scott? I didn't really see anything about that. Yeah. Yeah. six to eight weeks that would put him potentially right in line to return for the playoffs if everything goes well.

And, you know, obviously they have to make it to the playoffs, which will be a little bit harder without him than it was with him. Yeah. And we've talked all season about this. I don't know. I never know if we or if I overreact in the moment just because there have been so many hit by pitches this season up and in to hands. wrists, forearms. We've seen some guys get plunked in the head this season, and sometimes those things happen.

But it just feels like it's happening more this season, more often. And I don't know if it's related to, you know, the crackdown on sticky substances, whether they need to pre-tack the baseball, whatever it might be, but I think this is a conversation that needs to continue happening among Major League Baseball, and hopefully they can try and find a way to,

they're never going to get rid of it completely, but at least to try and remedy the situation. I mean, the whole reason the Southern League at AA, one of the leagues at AA, the Southern League, has been using a tacky ball the past couple seasons is because they continue to use the minor leagues as a way to experiment with different rule changes. So I think the conversation is ongoing. Given how dominant pitching has been in the Southern League when they've used that tacky baseball, I don't know that that's the answer. But yeah, I do think it's not like a closed case. So what about replacements for Austin Riley? In the shallowest of leagues, just check to see Mark Vientos or Junior Camerro.

They're both still under 80% rostered on CBS. After those two, you have Michael Bush, Ehuyahuel Suarez, and Colt Keith, who are all between 60% and 70% rostered. Scott, how would you rank Bush, Suarez, and Colt Keith? I would rank them Suarez, Bush, Keith, maybe putting Keith ahead of Bush in points leagues since he strikes out a lot less. But they're, if you want to go week by week with it,

just playing matchups and hot hands, I don't think that's a bad approach. These guys are all rostered in more than 70% of leagues, more than 69 and up, I guess. Suarez is the, no, Keith is 62. I'm sorry, they're all rostered in 60% of leagues and up. We're talking the shallower end of the spectrums, and so maybe you can afford to play matchups that way.

But if you're asking me to commit to one rest of season, Suarez would be my choice. Some names in deeper leagues, Isaiah Kynar Philefa, Jonah Bride, Wittmerfield, and Andres Chaparro. These are all under 35% rostered. Scott, how would you rank those names in deeper leagues? I guess I'd go Kiner Folefa, number one, Chaparro

to Bride 3 with Maryfield 4 Yeah Not the most exciting group But that's where we're at At this point in the season Well the thought occurred to me If Maryfield has played enough

Third Base recently That is eligible there in fantasy Maybe when All Bees comes back He can be the one to slide over at third And keep getting at bats that way This may extend Maryfield's Life for Fantasy Albies

I thought I heard something pretty positive about him on the broadcast the other day there hasn't been a player update since July 22nd but I think he's I think he's supposed to be back within two or three weeks

is what I heard but I'm just going off memory there let's get all the Dodgers news out of the way because like there has been a lot recently yeah we have lots of Dodgers news Freddie Freeman was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his right middle finger,

but was in the lineup on Monday, Dave Roberts said it's all about pain tolerance for Freeman moving forward. There's no way to quantify or correctly answer this question, but I would have to imagine an injury like this. I commend Freeman for playing through it, Scott, but my guess is it is going to affect his performance.

Well, it's his... Does he throw right? I know obviously that's, Right. Is your right-handed throw? Yeah, he's played some third base in the majors before, so he must throw right. So that's his throwing hand. As for the batting, it's the less important hand, and it is just a hairline fracture.

And as Dave Roberts says, it's a pain tolerance thing. I don't know that it'll impact his performance. I think if it is, then he's not tolerating the pain very well and should probably be out of the lineup. We've seen players play through injuries like this before without it impact. their production. So I'd be willing to keep starting Freeman. I actually sat him in the league where I had him because the report at the time was he was going to be out for a few days. But if he's in the lineup, I'm playing Freddie Freeman because I doubt you're going to do much better than that off the waiver wire. Speaking of being in the lineup, both Max Muncie and Tommy

Edmund were reinstated by the Dodgers and Muncie was batting seventh while Edmund was batting ninth. Muncie actually homered in his first game and Tommy Edmund stole a bag. So there you go. So exactly what we want them to do they did here in their first games back. And if Muncie happens to be available in your league and you lost Austin Riley, I think he goes to the top of the list of third base pickups there. Had of Hayouhanyu Suarez. I know somebody noted in the chat that he's, Muncie's only 57% rostered in ESPN leagues.

He's 78 on CBS. So even in CBS, he might be out there in some. Yeah, I did not think that Muncie would be available in any leagues. but yeah, here we are, 78%. You would take him even over Caminero and Vienzos, Max Muncie? Oh, no, I didn't. You didn't bring up those options, did you? Oh, I sure did, Scott.

Okay, but you didn't have me rank them, right? No, I didn't. Yeah, I would take, no, I would rank those Vietos 1, Commonero 2, and Muncie 3, if we're talking shallow league options. Yeah. Okay. And Dave Robert. Viantos and Cominero are my 13th and 14th ranks the third baseman.

Mm-hmm. I mean, it wouldn't be crazy if Monsi worked his way up there, but obviously he's missed so much time. And we'll see if it takes some time to shake some rust off and all that fun stuff. Dave Roberts also said that Michael Kopeck is, quote, gassed and will be held out from pitching for a few days. He's apparently fine physically, but pitched three of four days from Thursday through Sunday. And, of course, the Dodgers had a save opportunity right away on Monday. Monday, and it was Evan Phillips this time.

I mean, that's not a good quality for a closer if you're not going to be available enough. So that does have me concerned after yesterday's Michael Kopeck Love Fest. I mean, a few days. What does a few days mean? I understand I'm not being available today. Three or four, few relievers would be. So it didn't really raise an eyebrow for me, Evan Phillips, getting a save in the box score, until I saw this report a few days.

Copac's going to be unavailable. Well, what does that mean? This was Phillips' first save since July 23rd, and he had only once even worked the eighth inning this month. So he wasn't even being used in a setup capacity. So I don't know that Evan Phillips moves back up the saves pecking order with this save. I still think Copac is the top option to have in the Dodgers bullpen. We mentioned yesterday, Daniel Huddle.

has been shaky lately. But there's still not a lot of clarity, is there? Yeah, I think that's fair. I also think it's pretty reasonable for him, for Kopeck to get a few days off after pitching three out of four. Hopefully he's ready to go by like Wednesday. I think that would be ideal.

But ever-evolving bullpen here with Dave Roberts and the Dodgers. A few means at least three. If you meant two, it'd be a couple, Frank. Come on. Come on. All right. He's just not being that precise with his language. It's possible.

semantics from Dave Roberts. Ketel Marte was placed on the aisle with a sprain left ankle. He re-agravated the injury as a pinch hitter on Sunday. And Kevin Newman started at second base here on Monday with the D-backs. So hopefully you saw that report before lineups locked and you got Katel Marteigh out of there. The pirates apparently have no plans to shut Paul Skeens down but are considering shortening his starts. And he's up to 125 and a third innings between the Myel-Marthe. and the majors.

Scott, could this turn into a Garrett Crochet type situation here with Paul Skeens? Well, it could. They're not being clear about how much they're going to shorten his starts or how regularly they're going to shorten his starts. But it could.

Frankly, I'd prefer to see them go the other route and just give him a hard stop. But since they're saying they're not going to do that, we're just going to have to see how it plays out. I'd be a little concerned if I had skeins, but I expressed that already in that article I wrote last week. Jacob de Grom is scheduled to throw a bullpen on Tuesday before making his first rehab start Thursday at AAA.

And according to Chris, who threw this extra note in here, DeGrom will make four starts on his rehab assignment. So September 10th through 12th is an expected return date for Jacob deGrom, assuming all goes well. Alex Breggman has now missed four straight with elbow inflammation. Shea Whitcomb started in his place. Pete Fairbanks was officially placed on the IL with a right lat strain. And as we mentioned yesterday, it could be any or all of Edwin Usseta,

Manuel Rodriguez, and Colin Pochet for saves in Tampa moving forward. An MRI on Brandon Nemo's shoulder came back clean. He was out of the lineup Monday and is considered day-to-day. Bo Boshet is expected to begin running in two to three days. been out since late July with a moderate right calf train. Justin Verlander has been confirmed to return and start Wednesday against the Red Sox. Do not start him in his first start back. Alex Cobb out of nowhere.

Place on the aisle with a fractured nail on his right hand. And sorry to anybody who picked him up. Obviously, we didn't know this was going to happen. The news came out on Monday. But I actually picked him up in Tout War, so the same thing happened to me. So just sometimes, stuff like that. that happens here in baseball. I mean, he hadn't been good, so I can't imagine there was a lot of a big push to pick

him up across the fantasy baseball world. I know his last start out was pretty good, and yeah, I picked him up in Tout Wars, which was a 15-te-league, so, you know, there's not really many pitchers out there, so, oh well, bad for me. Yandy Diaz was back in the lineup after leaving Sunday with a hit-by-pitch on his left forearm, an MRI on Hassan Kim's right shoulder came back somewhat favorable, but the results are still being evaluated

and he could need more imaging. The Marlins recalled Connor Norby from AAA. He came over from the Orioles in the Trevor Rogers trade, and he was in the lineup at third base. Batting sixth, he finished one for four with a run in RBI and caught stealing, but nice to see that he had the green light right away here with the Marlins.

14% rostered. He's got any interest here. in Connor Norby. In deeper leagues. Yeah, I think he'll play a lot. And I think his chances of making good on the power numbers we've seen in the miners are much better now that he's out of Baltimore and that oppressive left field fence. Not that Lone Depot Park is a great place to hit, but for somebody who a right-handed hiter who relies on pull-side power, as Connor Norby does, Baltimore was clearly the worst. place he could be playing.

And if he plays at third base, he could gain that eligibility soon. And in deeper leagues, he could turn out to be an Austin Riley replacement. So just pay attention to that position eligibility there with Connor Norby. Tyro Estrada was reinstated from the IL and in the Giants lineup batting seventh. Brian Hayes was placed in the IL with lower back inflammation. And the Reds promoted one of their pitching prospects, Julian Aguilar, to start on Monday. He was at the Blue Jays, where he threw four in. of two-run ball with two strikeouts.

23 years old, okay numbers in the minors here, Scott. Is there anything with Julian Aguilar of the Reds? I don't think so. I didn't even take a second look, to be honest, after the way this start went. The Reds are stretched pretty thin

on the pitching side. Okay, let's get into some Waverwire hitters and some outfielders who could be out there in some shallower leagues, guys that have been hitting well for quite some time now, Jake McCarthy stayed hot, hit another home run. His last 22 games, he's batting 420 with four homers, 16 runs, 22 RBI, 5 steals,

and an OPS over 1,100 for Jake McCarthy. T.J. Friedel, 3 for 4 with his 10th home run. He has hit cleanup in 7 straight for the Reds, and since returning from the IL, only batting 2.36, but he has five homers and 17 RBI. We know he has some steals potential as well. Masataka Yoshida can do no wrong. He was out of the lineup.

He came on as a pinch hitter, and what did he do? He hit another home run, and dating back to like the end of June last 39 games, Yoshita is batting 35 with seven homers, 32 RBI, and an OPS approaching a thousand. J.J. Bladay, someone I know you like as well, Scott, one for three with his 16th home run. He is a little bit less rostered than the rest of these names down at 51%. But how would you rank this group? McCarthy, Friedel, Yoshita.

and Bladay. I would rank them Friedel. Number one, Friedel. Number two, I got a lean Yoshita right now followed closely by Bladay

and then McCarthy is fourth, but we're talking rest of season with those rankings and rest of season's pretty short. So I don't even know that that's the most appropriate way to rank them. McCarthy was the one of these four hitters

that made my sleep hitter list for this week. So obviously he's very hot right now, and if the matchups favor him, I don't have a problem starting him over any of these. Though I do think Friedel is, he belongs in a separate category. He's the one of these four that I think could truly achieve must-start status. Yeah, I was surprised to see that Friedel is only 68% rostered. We were kind of down on him coming into the season, but that all,

changes once the season starts, right? If you're just talking about adding somebody off the waiver wire, then, okay, yeah, let's pick him up and see where it goes. He obviously hits in a great ballpark. He's hitting in the middle of the lineup, so. And we were concerned about his power production, and that is one thing that hasn't been lacking at all for Friedel. I mean, this home run was on the road even. Yeah. I don't know who's texting me at 115 in the morning. Well, I can tell you what, Scott. It wasn't me, unless something went through way too late. I mean, usually it would only be you. I don't even think. I don't even think that was a text.

I think some kind of app notification or something. Some kind of hot garbage, Frank. I try to turn those blue dots off, but they keep coming back. I do want to follow up real quick on McCarthy because it seems like you're not as enthusiastic, Scott. Like, I don't know. Someone tweeted at me, why does Scott hate Jake McCarthy? And I didn't have an answer. So what would you say to that?

I mean, I made him the cover photo of the sleeper hitters this week, so I don't know. I don't know. Do you think he's that good? A guy who doesn't have a lot of power, doesn't walk much. I just think there's a narrow path to him becoming an impactful player. Clearly, he's very hot right now, and I don't have a problem with anyone taking advantage of that, but I don't see him being some, like, emerging stud or anything like that. Yeah, I don't fully buy that. He's clearly not this good, but if you want to write him,

ride the hot hand while he's batting second and one of the best lineups in baseball, right? I think the debacks are top three in runs scored this season. So, you know, there's going to be counting stat opportunities there. Even with this great 22 game stretch, the average exit velocity is 87.3 miles per hour. The barrel rate is 6%. So I do agree with you that I think he's just, he's running really hot and probably don't buy too much into that power production there with Jake McCarthy. Let's take a look at some Waver Wire pitchers from Monday's action.

Kyle Harrison turned in a quality start up against the White Sox. Six innings, one run with five strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 98 pitches. I think it's mostly that he was just facing the White Sox in this one. David Peterson, is it time to take him more seriously? I mean, a great start up against a tough lineup in the Orioles, seven innings, three runs, only two of those were earned. He had eight strikeouts to one walk, 11 whiffs on 101 pitch. is there with David Peterson.

He's turned in four straight quality starts. I'll save Zebby Matthews because he didn't really have a great start here, but any enthusiasm for Harrison or David Peterson. If the matchups are right, I don't see them emerging from that that streaming

category. Yeah, Peterson's had a great month here. Four good starts, ERA during that stretch. I don't think you gave this number, did you? Nope. ERA during that four-star stretch 185 with a 11-whip and 7.8K per 9. And that's why I don't see him emerging as more than a streamer option because control isn't very good.

He's not a big bat miss or really good ground ball pitcher. So if he was thriving on two of those three legs of the, let's call it the X-FIP triangle, since I'm emphasizing ground ball rate, and I could buy into David Peterson a little more. But the control is bad, and he's not much of a strikeout guy. So it's really just the ground balls. And that'll make them usable at times. We've seen them be usable in years past. But I don't think there's much to get genuinely excited about here with David Peterson.

And Kyle Harrison, he's been on a nice run as well. The numbers for him are a little more impressive. so at least as far as the strikeouts go. Kyle Harrison, last seven, starts 3.47 ERA 113.1.13 whip 9.4K per 9. The starts have tended to be on the shorter side. I did have him as my top sleeper pitcher for this week because the White Sox were the first matchup that's we faced here on Monday. And the second one is against the Mariners.

So Harrison hopefully will have an eighth impressive start in a row. but they're not so impressive that I feel like he's turned the corner and is living up to his prospect pedigree and all of that. I just think he's been pretty good for a while now, and it'll end at some point. But we can enjoy it for now with the matchups being what they are. Speaking of prospect pedigree, Zebby Matthews was back on the mound here

and was not as good in his second start. At the Padres, five innings, five runs. Only two of those were earned. Two walks to one strikeout. only had six whiffs on 92 pitches. 52% rostered. Obviously, a start like this doesn't make you want to go out in ads to be Matthew Scott, but if you picked him up, do you hold on to him?

What do you think? 52% seems over-rastered. I haven't seen a lot to get excited about in these two starts. He throws five different pitches, but none of them look that impressive. and he didn't walk anybody in his first start. Remember, he had seven walks in the minors, just the whole minor league season.

He didn't walk anybody in his first major league start. He walked two in this start. The strike percentage between the two starts has been 64%, which isn't really that special. And it is just two starts, and I think at the long run, Zebby Matthews, will be a good strike thrower. But I don't know that he's going to miss enough bats to be of interest.

at least as a rookie. One name in the deepest of leagues. Joe Boyle, a great start up against the Tampa Bay raise. He threw six shutout innings with six strikeouts, and he pretty much just let it fly. The velocity was way up, the fastball, and the slider up between 1.6 and 1.9 miles per hour each. And, you know, we've had slight interest in Joe Boyle's,

like a sleeper, a very deep sleeper at times, because the strikeout stuff is there if he can throw strikes. He threw 64% of his pitches for strikes in this one and his last six games at AAA before getting recalled. A 236 ERA, a 0.90 whip, 52 strikeouts

over 26 and two-thirds innings. So there's massive strikeout potential here, Scott. What do you think? I mean, very deep league stuff. Joe Boyle. Yeah, I'm paying attention to it. I don't want you to get confused, okay? Zebby Matthews, who we just talked about 52% rostered. Joe Boyle 5% rostered.

So I took a negative tone with Zebby Matthews if you're just listening to my tone and not my words. The tone was more negative for Zebby Matthews. It's going to be more positive here for Joe Boyle. But that's because the roster ship is way off. Zebby Matthews is the better prospect of the two. Okay. So having said that, Joe Boyle, you mentioned the way he was pitching. I want to zero in on the strike percentage here, though.

because his first 14 starts between the majors and the minors this year, 53% strike rate, which is about the lowest I've ever seen. I mean, that's just dreadful. Yeah. But the next six starts, so I'm putting a slightly different cutoff than you did. First 14 starts, 53% strikes. Next six, not including Mondays, 65% strikes, which is actually pretty good. So with his stuff, if he can throw 63, 64, 65, like he has been doing recently,

then there may be something here. It's just that was the whole case I was making for Joe Boyle coming into the season because he had a nice short stretch at the end of last season where he started throwing a bunch of more strikes. It obviously didn't last. So I would be very careful with my handling of Joe Boyle, but I remain intrigued by the upside. Okay, 5% rostered. So again, just in the deepest of leagues,

throw them on the scout team, and let's see where it goes here with Joe Boyle. We'll take our final break, and when we return, some other standouts for Monday. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in, and some pitching standouts.

Seth Lugo bounced back with a strong start up against the Angels, seven innings, two runs, with eight strikeouts. Tanner Hout turned in a quality start at the Astros. Six innings, three runs. Two of those earned eight strikeouts to zero walks. 18 whiffs on 90 pitches.

This is exactly what we needed to see from Tanner Halk. You say Kikuchi on the other side, he just missed out on a quality start. Five and two-thirds, three runs allowed, seven strikeouts with 17 whiffs on 99 pitches. And Michael King turned in another quality start up against the twins, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. He had 14 wiffs on 85 pitches. Scott, anything to add on Michael King, Kikuchi, Tanner Hauk, and Seth. Lugo. Yeah, we definitely needed to see this from Hauk.

The strikeouts and the walks had both been off for a long time. If I could pull up those numbers in his previous seven starts, 4.8 walks per 9, 5.1Ks per 9. So it was too many of the former, too few of the latter, and that was seven. That was a while for Tanner Halk. And I was especially concerned about it for him because the innings were beginning to escalate.

He is well over his previous high in innings, and I wonder if they're going to have to start managing those soon. But he did get back on track of this. Zero walks, eight strikeouts. That's more like the Tanner Halk we were seeing earlier this season, 18 swinging strikes. It all look great against a tough Astros lineup. So has a second start coming up this week.

I did have him in the advisable category of the two-star pitcher rankings. So hopefully he did that advice and went ahead and started him. even though he'd been kind of shaky recently. You say Kukuchi does seem to be experimenting with his pitch selection quite a bit since joining with the Astros. I think the most encouraging thing he did in that first start was up his change-up usage. But that hasn't really continued. He didn't throw that many change-up in this start. He doubled his slider usage.

And the results were fine. But it's hard for me to get a grasp on what Kikuchi is. his whole plan of attack here and what's going to make him successful. And that just kind of makes me want to stay away all things being equal. King has been great for a long time. No concerns there. I think he's like a top 25 pitcher for me rest of season. Taj Bradley.

I didn't bring him up yet. I didn't bring him up. Oh, okay. All right. We'll bring him up now. Yeah, Lugo is the other one. I don't really have anything on Lugo except like he was struggling a little bit over his last six entering the start. And his velocity was down quite a bit.

So just something to pay attention to. The fastball down 1.3, the curve down 2.1. And the cutter down almost three miles per hour here with Seth Lugo. He's at his career high innings too. He's about 15, 20 above it. He's 34 years old. So with the Royals fighting for a playoff spot, I don't imagine they're going to slow him down at all.

But it may impact his performance. and we've seen him be a bit shakier recently, Seth Lugo. And now, Tage Bradley. What do we do with Tage Bradley, who did turn in a quality start at the Oakland A's, six innings, three runs, three walks to two strikeouts, but, you know, the line overall not great. 12 whiffs on 89 pitches.

He allowed 13 hard hits in this game, 92.7 average exit velocity, and the last four starts have been a struggle. 8-10 ERA, a 175 whip, less than a strikeout per inning, and lots of hard confidence. during that stretch, Scott. What do we do with Taj Bradley?

Yeah, I don't know that he's going to escape the hard contact, but he needs to get back to missing bats more like he did during that ridiculous stretch he went on. And he only, obviously the trend, it was a better start. It was a better star for Taj Bradley than the previous three in that it was a quality start. but him striking out two and six innings, definitely not what I want to see as far as that goes. So got a decent number of swinging strikes. I'm not sure it's like a big red flag,

but I guess I'm just saying I'm not convinced Bradley is back on the right track, even though this was a better start. Two hitting standouts from Monday's action. Corey Seeger continues his awesome, August, two for three with a double dung and four RBI. He's actually been really good for much longer than August. Corey Seeger has since June 23rd, last 46 games. He's batting over 300 with 14 home runs and a 93.3 average exit velocity.

That is Corey Seeger, and Jainer Diaz continues to impress as well. Two for five with his 14th home run, a walkoff, which came against Kenley Jansen. And in the second half, Diaz is batting 345. with seven homers, 21 RBI, and a 965 OPS. 28 days later, a movie I have seen that does not feature Adam Sandler. And we did this segment maybe a month ago, Scott, and it's just a reason for me to talk about some stats

over the last 28 days, some players, some hitters who are hot, some who are not. So this is... So you've saw it a while ago. You didn't see 28 days later in the last 28 days, did you? No, no, no. I wouldn't mind seeing it, though. It was really good.

I think I watched it for the first time two or three years ago. I really liked it. But I haven't watched 28 weeks later. Is that one good? I don't know. I haven't seen it. All right, well, we're going to have to change that.

Maybe I'll watch party between us too, Scott, 28 weeks later. I mean, you have higher priorities, I think, in terms of movies to watch. Yeah. Just watch Jurassic Park already. Come on. Like just, what do you have going on in your life? Actually, quite a bit. We'll find out about that later on in the week.

Moving and everything. Yeah. Let's talk about the top 10 in OPS over the last 28 days. They all have an OPS over 1050. Not really going to spend too much time on this list rather than just outside of just listing them off. But not many surprises. Aaron Judge, Vlad Jr., Cattel Marte, Bobby Wood Jr., Juan Soto, Jake Berger, Jackson, Merrill, Jorge Soler, which is just bad timing with his hamstring injury

because he was hitting well over the past month and Tyler Fitzgerald, who we've talked about quite a bit. Some names who are just outside of the top 10 in OPS, names that we haven't really talked much about. The first two, Alex Call, who plays for the Nationals, 366 batting average, three homers, 13 RBI, and three steals.

He has started 15 straight for the Nats. He's 29 years old. He's kind of a journeyman, some modest power and speed. He's only 15% rock. The other name here is Jeff McNeil, who is batting 305 with five home runs and a 982 OPS. He's pulling the ball more. He's putting it in the air.

It's been working. I'm not ready to call Jeff McNeil a slugger all of a sudden, but he is doing some things and is 67% roster. Scott, do you think either of those numbers need to be higher? Alex, call 15%. Jeff McNeil, 67%. I mean, call being only 15, I think. I don't think it would take much to raise that percentage. I know I have him in one 15 team five outfielder league.

And he's right on the fringes for me. I could drop him tomorrow if I felt like I had to. But he's been so hot right now. I just kind of want to write it out because it's tough to fill all five outfielder spots. And in a league like that, it's always had good plate discipline. Doesn't hit the ball especially hard, but has hit for power in the minors. and it has a good opportunity in Washington. That's where those minor league journeymen types can sometimes latch on with a rebuilding team like that and finally turn into something.

So, yeah, Alex Call could be rostered and more. Jeff McNeil already is rostered in a lot more and deserves to be. 67% is that enough? Probably he is one. of those hitters who it's been pointed out he's swinging harder in the second half his bat speed has gone

up and we're seeing the power numbers tick up because of it and so if that is something he can sustain then maybe Jeff McNeil can recapture some of his former dominance and fantasy. It's a big if. Obviously he's second base eligible

which might make him more useful to some people but he does have outfield as well. I would rather have him than Alex call, but he's already a lot more rostered than Alex call. What about Matt Chapman, who over the last 28 days is betting 287 with six homers, two steals on 955 OPS, 97.2 average exit velocity, tons of barrels. He actually homered again here on Monday, and the overall numbers, 247, 20 home runs, 12 steals, and a 782 OPS, a top 8 third basement in both Roto and head to head point.

points. He's two rostered. This isn't a waiver-wire thing, Scott, but it's just an opportunity to shine some light on Matt Chapman, who's had a really good season. He has. He has. His strikeout rate is his lowest since, uh, what was it? His last great season, was it 2019 for the A's? The last time he was a real stud in fantasy. Yeah, 2019, it was 22%. This year, it's 25% almost, but it had been higher than that in the years since. So between that and Matt Chapman running more and Matt Chapman being, I was going to say he was a little more pull heavy this year, but that's not the case actually. I wish he was more pull heavy because I feel like that's undermining his power potential a little bit. But whatever, he's having a good year is the point. And in a way that I'm mostly willing to subscribe to. Okay.

What about the bad over the past 28 days? And we can try and move along this list pretty quickly, Scott. But just whether or not we're holding on to these players, is it a right to drop them in shallower leagues? Ryan McMahon, right around the time that I bought in and moved him way up my rankings, he's turned back into a pumpkin. 113 batting average. He's a mere McMahon.

Two home runs, one steal, a 468 OPS, 35% strikeout rate for Ryan McMahon. And now the numbers are basically right in line with where he's been each of the previous two years. So everything evens out. He's 92% rostered. How do you feel about McMahon, Scotty? I think he's the same guy he's always been.

As you said, the numbers have leveled off. And that's pretty fringy in leagues that don't have the standard road to line up with the extra corner infield spot, the extra middle infield spot. not a high priority to even roster him in those leagues. But when you do have the extra spots to fill, he's probably must roster. So McMahon's kind of right.

An emblematic player of that, you know, the distinction between those two leagues. George Springer over the past month, 180 batting average with one home run. He does have four steals, but a 502 OPS, strikeout rate is up, ground balls are up, quality of contact is not good. He was really hot right.

before the All-Star break, but basically since then, he's been pretty bad again. Still 95% rostered, Scott. Yeah. What do you think? Springer? I mean, I'd drop them for T.J. Friedel at this point. What about the other names mentioned,

like Yoshida and McCarthy? Yeah, I mean, if it's to get a lineup upgrade, I wouldn't have a problem with it. I know I'm going to rank Springer ahead of those two, but I don't have. He's not in a range of the rankings where he's like undropable. What about Logan O'Hoppy, who is batting 154 with three home runs, a 511 OPS, 39% strikeout rate over the last 28 days?

The overall number is still look fine. He's just been pretty cold over the past month or so. 86% rostered. If you're playing in one catcher league, do you drop O'Hopi for a Joey Bard or a Del Castillo or Austin Wells, someone like that? I would be okay with it. I think if we're starting a brand new season, we're looking at six months ahead of us. Oh, Hopi's the one I want the most,

and so that's how I'm going to rank him. But as we already covered, catcher you can afford to be really, really capricious with your roster moves there. Esauk Paratus, let's change this one to basically his time with the Cubs, where he is batting 153 with two home runs, a 555 OPS. The fly ball rate is down to 37.5%

which is not going to work for Paratus to pull this thing off. I mean, it's got to be pulled fly balls right down the line. We expressed some skepticism when he was traded over to Chicago. He's still 95% rostered. What do you think about Paratus? Do you hold on? I think he gets back on track. Oh, I've been expressing skepticism for a long time.

Remember, he was a preseason bus pick of mine. Is it finally going to happen? Maybe. I'm not ready to drop him yet, probably, except in the shallowest leagues where it's easy to replace him. But I'm not encouraged. I'm not encouraged at all.

Last name on this list is Alec Berluson, who is batting 213 with three homers, one steal of 581 OPS. Just a 216 bad-ep during this stretch. So I think he's been a little bit unlucky. He's still a top 40 player in Roto, 2.8 fantasy points per game. I think this is a rough stretch,

but I would be holding on to Alec Berlinson. Me too. All right, fair enough. What about some bullpen updates for the Orioles? Sir Anthony Dominguez got the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a walk-off homer to Francisco Alvarez. And if you haven't seen the clip, please go watch that home run because it was so awesome.

On a 3-0 pitch, just destroyed it, and he knew immediately Francisco Alvarez that it was gone. And he's just celebrating with his teammates. it was so great. For the Rangers, Kirby Yates, struck out two for his 22nd save. For the Royals, Lucas Ersig and James MacArthur

were both unavailable. It was John Shriver, who got the ninth inning with a two-run lead and picked up his second save of the season. For the Red Sox, Kenley Jansen got the ninth inning with the game tied.

He gave up that walk-off homer to Yiner-Diaz. For the A's, Mason Miller allowed a walk, but struck out one for his 19th save. For the Padres, Robert Suarez, got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up one run on a walk and a hit,

but picked up his 28th save. For the Giants, Ryan Walker was unavailable. He worked two innings on Sunday. So it was Jordan Hicks. Look at that. Back in the ninth inning with a two-run lead, he picked up his first save of the season. And as we mentioned for the Dodgers,

Michael Kopeck was unavailable. Evan Phillips got the ninth inning with a three-run lead, and he struck out one for his 16th save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Eduardo Rodriguez at the Marlins we have DJ Hers

up against the Rockies that game is in Washington we have anybody else Cody Bradford gets the pirates Martin Perez gets the twins and that's it yeah a bunch of good options here

I think my favorite is hers against the Rockies in Washington key distinction there but also making the sleeper pitchers list at the start of the week was Martin Perez going against the twins here and Eduardo Rodriguez at Miami and let's see who else do I like Cody Bradford against the Pirates I like him even more

than Edward Rodriguez as a matter of fact so that's four pretty good options for you on Tuesday not bad at all what about Wednesday simeon woods Richardson is at the Padres we have Mitchell Parker who gets the Rockies in Washington nick martine is at the blue jays yariel rodriguez on the other side against the Reds. Tobias Myers is at the Cardinals. James and Tyone gets the Tigers, Lorenzen versus the Angels. Yeah, so Tyone was on the sleeper pitchers list with that Tiger's matchup. And so was Tobias Myers. Myers over Tyone, I'd say. I think that's all I really want to get behind here. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I could see Parker and Martinez working out I don't have the most confidence in it.

Yeah. I mean, Parker was just so bad last time. It is the Rockies on the road. The Rockies themselves being on the road. Yeah. Lorenzen against the Angels could work out. He's changed the pitch mix with Kansas City. He's looked a little bit better.

So I'll throw those names out there. But yeah, I do agree with your top two options for Wednesday. Let's do Team Name Tuesday. We'll wrap things up here. And this one is from Kevin. Bregman Turner Overdrive. All right. From Jason, Walker Balfour.

Walker Balfour. I'm not sure I understand that reference. Yeah, I guess it's supposed to sound like Walker Bueller. It looks like maybe there's some famous photographer named Balfour Walker. Can't be that famous. Yeah. Well, the first thing that pops up on Google. Uh, from Ryan, I like big bets, and I cannot lie.

Oh, gosh. It's terrible. This person in the email actually said, here are three names that Scott is going to love. Yeah. Well, at least, at least he understands my taste, assuming he was being sarcastic. Yeah, I think so. Uh, this one's from Sam. How can that be proffarable for Frito Hayes?

Hmm So that's from the movie Game Night apparently Yeah Which I've seen once Don't remember the reference I have not seen that movie Is it good? Oh man

Game Night It is An excellent It has an excellent Jesse Plemons role in it So when I googled this That was Oh no

The person who emailed this Sent in a picture of Jesse Plemons as well So it must be something that he said or did okay yeah he is he is the best part of the movie for sure uh these are from joe d 1414 quantum leap with stephen kwan's name yeah yeah okay above and be low or i guess above and be low yeah branded low be low yeah it doesn't it doesn't really work when you pronounce his name right yeah watch me wit watch me nailer okay from Not going to...

That's fine. That's fine. Let's keep going. From Sage. I wish I was Teosker Meyer Winker. Okay. Okay. It's not so bad for cramming three names in there. You're going the Wong Ray. God, that was tough to... That would be hard to say five times back.

That was hard to say, yeah. Yeah. And who... I don't know if I should say this one or not. I'll say it. Who Lee Sheets? All right. And the last one is from Kenny.

Snelly feet. Okay. That is very mature, Kenny. Very mature. Very relevant with Blake Snell carrying many a fantasy team to fantasy championships right now. So he's doing it again.

Yep, with the Snelly feet. Yep, that's right. We are going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye. On podcasts.