Fantasy Baseball Today - Gilbert's Great Start, Darvish Concern, & Regression Candidates (7/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

Alright, Logan Gilbert looks legit (2:18)! Hey, Brad Miller hit three homers. ... Do we have any concerns with Yu Darvish or Max Scherzer after their clunkers (9:00)? We had four pairs of socks and shoes on Thursday (14:55)! Two were by Didi Gregorius and Dylan Moore who might be available in your leagues. ... News and notes (22:58)! We had a Bauer update, Eloy Jimenez, is going for rehab, Sonny Gray went on the IL and more. ... Numbers don't lie (33:08)! Let's talk about some regression candidates like Alex Kirilloff and Shane McClanahan. ... Frankie Montas was amazing on Thursday (43:54), as was Lance McCullers. ... What's our Worryometer on Sandy Alcantara (50:21)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens, streamers, and your emails (54:30). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  To nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People’s Choice podcast awards, go to podcastawards.com/app/signup/ and then toggle down the "Sports" category. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Domino. Welcome O'Fri-Moday and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today, presented by Lining Cougals. More on their great variety of beverages later on in the podcast. July 9th, Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers. Honestly, on a really fun day of baseball, Logan Gilbert was ridiculous. We had four, that's right, four pairs of socks and shoes. The Padres were down eight zip against Max Scherzer. They have come back and rallied in that game.

game. It was a really, on the strength of a grand slam by a relief pitcher who never had a major league hit. Yeah. I'm not sure if you had had a major league at bat. So I was watching that game and they said the last time that had been done, a pitcher's first hit being a grand slam, it was in the 1800s. It was, I don't know, it was like 1890 something.

It's like, all right. Well, it's a long, long time ago. That was his second. Major League plate appearance and his 33rd played appearance as a professional dating back to 2012. Daniel Camarena. Yeah, no, it was an awesome moment for him. His family was freaking out. Apparently, he was being scouted as a two-way player

originally, and there you go. I mean, that's the reason why, right? Clearly should have been. Guy could swing a stick. So that was really fun. It wasn't really fun if you had you Darvish or Max Scherzer in your lineups, but we will talk about that in just the little. little bit. We don't have a preview for next week because the All-Star Break is next week, but we do have a new segment we'd like to debut. Numbers don't lie. Look at some regression candidates, a whole lot of dingers, your emails, and much more. Let's talk about all of it. Now, Oh my goodness gracious. All right, Chris. I'm going to get us started here today with Logan Gilbert

going up against my Bronx bombers. They didn't really look like the Bombers on Thursday. But that's because Logan Gilbert was amazing. Seven, one-hit innings with eight strikeouts to zero walks. 18 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. 11 of those came on the slider. Seven of them came on the four-seam fastball. 97 of his 103 pitches were either fastballs or sliders.

Some people are going to look at that and say, oh, well, he's a two-pitch pitcher. He didn't need anything else. When you got it working. He didn't need anything else, man. And, you know, it's a lot like what, obviously, Look, Logan Gilbert, I'm not comparing him to Jacob de Grompe. But if you look at Jacob de Grom's pitch mix this year, it's only fastball slider. Like, he's barely used the change up like he has in the past.

Because he just doesn't need to. And that was the case for Logan Gilbert. I was watching this game, and he was just dominating, challenging hitter after hit with his fastball. And he didn't really need to do much more. He did give up seven hard hit balls, but, you know, ultimately great defense behind him because he only allowed one hit. Last seven starts for Logan Gilbert, Chris. 2.37 ERA, 42 strikeouts, over 38 innings pitched with a 14% swinging strike rate.

He's 70% rostered. I don't know if there's just 30% of leagues that aren't paying attention at this point, Chris, but he needs to be universally rostered. He is a must-add starting pitcher. I think I moved him if not inside my top 50 starting pitchers, close to it. Yeah, I mean, I think what might be happening there, and this is, you know, you'll see this a lot in, all fantasy sports, you know, when a player produces matters a lot in the perception of them.

And, you know, Gilbert, he comes up with all this hype. And he just pitches really poorly to start out. And that just kind of causes people to lose interest. And you kind of miss that he ended up being really, really good. It's kind of like if a player has a really bad, like April and May and then is awesome after that, you know, a lot of people may not remember it because it's that first impression that that can stick in your mind. But, you know, it's interesting. You talked about, you know, how he only used the fastball on slider and had a really good start. Well, his previous start,

it wasn't quite this good, but it was two earned runs, five and two thirds inning, six strikeouts, two walks. And in that one against the Rangers, he threw 72% fastballs. And 16% changeups. He only through seven sliders in that start. So I think what we're seeing is Gilbert growing more confident with his, you know, collection of pitches and feeling confident that when something is working, he can lean on it. And if something's not working, you know, he can kind of put in his back pocket. And, you know, when he started out, it was fastball slider curveball pretty heavily. And he started working the change up in.

He looks really good right now. And he looks like, you know, when he got called up, there was, you know, the idea of him was that he was like a pitchability guy, that he had good command, better command than you would think for someone who's six foot six. And that didn't look to be the case early on, but he's really settled down. And, you know, when you're six foot six and you throw, I mean, his velocity was up to 95.6 miles per hour on average today, which is about a mile per hour up on what he's averaged. You know, the margin for error shrinks or expands.

Yeah, expands. And so, you know, I think that's. that's a very promising sign that we're seeing from him right now. I think it's a, I think you have to like what we're seeing from Logan Gilbert. Yeah, and I think that's a really good point that you bring up and one that I was going to hit on as well. He's six foot six and he throws 96 miles per hour. In the start, average 95.6 miles per hour on his fastball. The extension that he gets at six foot six and throwing as hard as he does, that 96 probably looks like

106 for some batters. So that's why his confidence is growing and he has this ability to challenge hitters now, especially, look, I mean, Yankees, they are a lineup where if they're hot, they can do a lot of damage, especially against fastballs, right? And he's just going out there

and challenging these guys. So I moved them inside my top 50 starting pitchers, Chris, up to SP. I did too. Nice. I moved them up to SP 49. and well I guess if you did it that means that you are

you don't think it's too aggressive of a move but just ahead of... I got him to 50. I put him just ahead of Louise Garcia, Terrick Scouble, Alec Manoa, I guess you can argue that one and Manoa had an awesome start

last time out too. Nathan Avaldi, Wade Miley, Zach Plissack, which, okay, they're all fine pitchers. But I think Logan Gilbert could be better than fine

based on what he's been showing over this last seven-start stretch so I'm aggressive with it. If he's available in your league, go out and add Logan Gilbert. Oh my goodness gracious for you, Chris. Where are you going?

I guess we got to talk about Brad Miller. I know he's not the most fantasy relevant player in the world, but he hit three home runs today. And I feel like if we don't mention that in a, oh my goodness gracious player of the night segment, I feel like we're betraying the spirit of the thing. So, yeah, Brad Miller, three home runs. That's a lot of home runs in one game.

I don't really have all that much else to add. He doesn't really play all that regularly. He's historically not been a particularly good player, although he goes through stretches. And there, we've had the requisite Brad Miller discussion. Braddie, no gloves. Love that he swings the stick with no gloves there. But you're right.

I mean, there's not much fantasy value here. Triple Dong, three homers. It helps when you're facing Adbert Alzli, who has allowed at least two home runs in each of his last. four starts. If you still have Al's Lai on your team, don't.

You can drop him for someone like Logan Gilbert if he's available. But this was Brad Miller's first start since June 30th and since June 1st he's 5 for 39.

So again... He's actually hit well over the last three seasons. It's just he only has 506 plate appearances over those three seasons. But he's got an 820 OPS. I think he just,

he like barely ever faces lefties, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah. He comes and goes and spurts. So, if he gets hot, NL only, that's probably the only spot you're looking at. Brad. Pretty much, yeah.

Miller. Let's just talk about this entire game, this entire Padres Nationals game, because it was like an oh my goodness, gracious game in general. And if you were expecting a pitcher's duel, that is not what you got. U. Darvish will start there, three innings, eight hits, six earned runs, spin rate down on the cutter, about 142 RPM. That's been pretty consistent over the past month or so for him. The ERA, we've kind of just swept us under the rug.

Chris. The ERA is at 3.00 for U. Darvish after this start, which is still very good. His ex-fib is 3.77, and his bat at ball date is kind of all over the place this year. It's weird.

49% fly ball rate for U. Darvish. Last season, that was 31%. That's not an increase that is realistic year over year. 18 percentage points in fly ball rate.

So you couple that with the fact that a swinging strike rate is down a little bit this year. 14.3% last season for U. Darvish this year 12.8%. So more balls are being put in play and a lot of those balls are fly balls. Now we're

entering the warmest months of the baseball season. We're going to see some home runs come off of Udarvish unless he kind of changes the way that he pitches. But I found that kind of weird. Honestly, we're kind of at a point. Remember how good pitching

was early in the season? It was just this historic, it felt like every team had, like there were too many good starting pitchers to roster in fantasy. And now you look at the top of the ranks and like, who do you trust right now? Jacob de Grom, okay, that makes sense. Yeah. Max Scherzer, we'll give him a pass for this one. He's been awesome.

Yeah. Brandon Woodruff has been, I mean, arguably the best non-Jacob deGron pitcher in baseball. Ditto for Kevin Gosman, Zach Wheeler. I don't really feel good about Lucas Gialito or Aaron Nola. Corbyn Burns seems pretty awesome. I think we're good there. It's just a... I still like Darvish.

Like, don't get to be wrong. I still like Darvish. But it's... Yeah, no, for sure. I think the point that you're making is valid, though. Like, I've looked at the top recently, and even, like, once I get past the top, I guess you could say 12.

Now Lance Lynn is inside of my top 12. I move Kirschaw down. He's dealing with the injury. We're waiting for Shane Bieber to come back. But, like, after that, you have Rodon, Musgroves, Sandy Alcancera. who we'll talk about a little bit later on, should you be worried about him.

I'm kind of just waiting for someone else to step up and kind of claim that 15 to 20 range in the starting pitcher ranks. And don't get me wrong, like Rodon's been great, so he can be that guy, but we do have any of his concerns there. But yeah, I mean, really, honestly,

outside of the top 12, and even that's kind of pushing it, those guys have been pretty inconsistent. I mean, recently, at least. Call me crazy. I've got Luis Castillo back up to 17. Wow. I don't have...

I mean... I mean, you can make the argument for it. I have him at 28. It's like every good start that he has, I move him up like three or four rankings. Yeah. Call me crazy. Was that a...

Was that a reference to... What's her name? Who made that song? Hey, I just met you. Yeah, that one. And this is crazy. I did that song at karaoke for my birthday last week.

I saw a video of you doing karaoke. I would be intimidated to do karaoke with you, Chris, because you're probably really good. I mean, I'm enthusiastic. I don't want... know if I would say good. Yeah, but I really enjoy it. You're a music buff.

I mean, you made masterpieces. You're falling. I'm one of those guys are like, I go do karaoke. Everyone knows that I'm super drunk, and I'm just like trying to have fun. I might sing a Bon Jovi song or something like that. That's yeah.

You just got to have fun with it, you know? Like, nobody cares if you sound bad. Just karaoke. Uh, anyway. Especially the private room. You know, you got to do the private. The private room is great because you can make complete full of yourself.

The only people who hear you are like, you know, people who are walking by to go to the bathroom or something like that. Any worry for you, Darvish, based on this high fly ball rate? No. No, I don't think so. I'm kind of, I wrote about Garrett Cole for the trade values chart today. And I feel kind of similarly about both of them. Like, there are things that are concerning in their profile.

But I just have a hard time believing that they've lost it so much that I, can't view them as some of the best starting pitchers in baseball, especially because when U. Darvish has struggled, it's been control. And that has not been an issue for him. Like when he wasn't great in the first half of 2019 and in 2018, I mean, I know he was injured in 2018, but still, you know, it was the control that really abandoned him. And then he was elite in the second half of 2019 elite last year, very, very good so far this year. As long as that remains not an issue, I still feel pretty good about him. You know,

this is a bad start, but his ERA went up almost half a run with this one bad start. Before this one, he had a 265 ERA and a 292X ERA. That's exactly what I noticed too. I mean, Stackcast still loves the guy, so you Darvish not giving up that heart of contact this year. Max Scherzer on the other side in this game, three and two-thirds. You thought he was going to cruise to a win with an eight-run lead. Wasn't the case. Five hits. seven earned runs, which we mentioned. He still had 17 swinging strikes. Spin rates down a little bit on his fastball

and slider. Just over 115 RPM for Scher. That has been consistent, but this is really the first bad start that he's had since the whole crackdown. So, I'm not as worried about Shurz. I mean, the guy's been doing this for the past decade plus, so I'm not... Yeah, his ERA

actually went up more than a half a run today. Yeah. I mean, just because yeah, it was as low as it was, right? So low, yeah. He's probably... He probably should be the SP2 at this point, man. Shout out to Chris, you were all over it, man. Me? Not so much.

Four pairs of socks and shoes on Thursday. In case you live under a rock, that's a home run and a stolen base in the same game. And speaking, we'll just stay with that game. Fernando Tatis, 28 home runs now and 20 steals. According to the Padres broadcast, only the 15th player in MLB history to go 20-20 in the first half of the MLB season.

Mind you, he had two. IEL stints this year. Fernando Tatis. Shoulder, COVID, his 150 game pace right now. 59 homers, 42 steals. The shortstop on the other side of the field. Trey Turner, he won up to him. Two homers and a steel in the game. Still going on.

They might do even more damage. Trey Turner now up to 17 homers, 19 steals while biting 322. Chris, I'm pretty sure you feel the same way. But I think in Roto, we have a very clear quartet. at the top, there is no denying it, in terms of hitters at least. Tatis, Trey Turner, Ronald de Cunia, Shohay Otani. Not necessarily in that order, but I have to at this point, undoubtedly, have Juan Soto behind Trey Turner. I still have Turner behind Soto, but like my, the top of my

rhoda rankings are Acuna, Tatis, de Grom, Soto, Turner, Guerrero. And I know a little bit on an island with Soto, but like, he's been awesome lately. He has one thing that's been really fun to see is like the nationals are scoring a bunch of runs lately and Wonsod is actually contributing to that. I still think he's right there. But yeah, like, Tray Turner, you know, you look at the, you know, the latest trade values chart, which is up now. I think Tatis and Acuna are the $43 players or point, whatever you want to call it. And then, you know, everyone else is within a couple of points of each. I've got Soto, Turner, and Guerrero, all this $39 players.

So I think it's, I do think Acuna and Tatis, it's more like a two-person tier at the top and then those next three together with DeGrom in the middle. All right. I think that's fair. But for me, I would, I think I would put Soto behind them. Just because, like, as many steals as Trey Turner is giving you, it's absolutely ridiculous.

Though, he's amazing. Yeah. And we've talked about it a lot. Like, more than enough, Juan Soto is going to be just fine. or at least the underlying number say he's going to be. D.D. Gregorius was someone else who had a sock in a shoe on Thursday. He went three for four, hit his seventh home run, his second steal of the season. He's been out a lot this season dealing with an elbow injury.

He's 59% rostered, so it may be available in some shallower leagues. D.D. Gregorius, Chris, was the top 10 shortstop in both formats last year. Head-to-head points and in Roto, hitting in the middle of not a great lineup, but a lineup that allows him to drive and runs because he's right there. smack in the middle of it. 59% rostered. What do you think that number should be? You said 59?

Yeah, for D.D. Gregorius. I would say like 80 to 85% at least. I mean, you just look at what he did in 2019 and 2020 combined. And that was, you know, in 28, 2019, he was coming back from Tommy John's surgery. He hit 256 with 26 homers, 81 runs, 100 RBI and five steals and 142 games. James. That's really not that different from what he did at his peak with the Yankees. And, you know, obviously this season, he hasn't been quite as good, but we're dealing with a small sample where he was also dealing with an injury. So I do think he's just a rock solid option.

You know, he's not a superstar, but I said this before the season. You know, I think what I did was I looked at all of DeRigourius's numbers since the start of 2019 or 2018. And I compared them to all of Glabertoris' numbers if you took out the Orioles games in 2019. And they were basically identical. Now, obviously, that's not fair. You can't take, like, Glabertoris did hit those 13 home runs or whatever they were against the Orioles, but I think Dini's just underrated. Yeah, I agree with you there.

And he's one of these guys where you look at his stat cast page, and it's not exciting. It's actually quite the opposite. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because all he does is pull fly balls and whether it's Yankee Stadium or Citizens Bank Park, they fly out. And so, I mean, he wasn't even, I think they were in Wrigley. Yeah, they were in Wrigley tonight too. So like, it doesn't matter. Like, he's such an extreme pull hitter with the fly balls that wherever D.D. plays. Maybe if he played in San Francisco, it would matter. But everywhere else, uh, it seems to be conducive for his skill set. Dylan Moore is the last one. He's up to eight home runs and 14 steals. And I thought this was. super interesting. At the time when he did this, this was the fourth game this season, where Dylan Moore has had a home run and a steal in the same

game. That actually tied him with Fernando Tatis, who then went on to do it for a fifth time later on Thursday night, but I thought that was very interesting that him and Tatis are in that category together. Dylan Moore, his batting average is awful. That's not going to change. He strikes out like 35% of the

time. He has a 180 batting average this season, but he does give you power, he does give you speed. 39 percent rostered. I don't know that he needs to be much higher than that, but any categories league where you need speed, if you're either well off in batting average or you just kind of punt the category, I think Dylan Moore is a perfect player for you in that type of setting. Before we get to this. Can I point one thing out very quickly? Sure. Since the start of June, Juan Soto's 162 game Pays is a 295 average,

125 runs, 33 home runs, 123 home runs, 121 RBI, and 19 stolen bases. I rest my case. That's very good. Soto. Belongs. Now do it for Trey Turner. Yeah, he's good too. I mean, we're splitting hairs here, right?

Like, teammates, they're both awesome. They're both top five hitters in fantasy. Moving forward. Trey Turner has made a leap, clearly, since the start of last season. And And he's squarely among that elite group. He'll be 29 next season, so who knows how much, you know, whether he can keep that going.

But he's awesome. There's not really, you know, you don't have to say too much about it. For sure. The trilogy is upon us. UFC 264, Connor McGregor will be facing Dustin Porriere on July 10th. This Saturday, the series is tied one-to-one with each fighter owning a knockout win. But there is only one place to get all of your UFC. 264 coverage, and that's Morning Combat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell.

The boys are currently in Las Vegas and have been interviewing fighters and previewing this massive fight all week long so you can find that content. Make sure you check out Morning Combat, not Mortal Kombat, which is a great video game, by the way, morning combat for all your UFC 264 coverage by visiting YouTube.com slash morning combat or on any podcast platform. and our live YouTube Q&A stream is back this Monday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, but with a little twist, we will act as your pregame appetizer to the home run derby. Chris and I will also have a little derby draft of our own, which should be a lot of fun.

And if you're watching this on YouTube, drop a comment with who you think is going to win the home run derby, along with your Twitter handle. One person who picks the winner will receive a free one-year subscription to Sportsline, our gambling and DFS service. That's a $100 value for free. All you have to do, again, comment on the video. Not in the chat right now. Like after the video goes live, it's a video on demand.

Leave your comment, who you think's going to win. Make sure to leave your Twitter handle. We need a way to contact you in case you win. So do that. On this video, news and notes, we did have a Trevor Bauer update on Thursday. His administrative leave will be extended another seven days by Major League Baseball. It is very unlikely things will be released. resolved in the next seven days, however, which means an indefinite leave is looming for Trevor

Bauer. Eloy Jimenez, who tore his peck during spring training, will begin a rehab assignment with high A on Friday. The best case scenario is that he's back late July. Currently, 72% rostered is Eloy Jimenez, so might be out there in some shallower leagues. Chris, would you be excited about adding or maybe trying to buy Eloy Jimenez right now before he comes back? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be paying too high of a price for him, but just because the risk of re-injury is so high. And he has, you know, injuries have been a struggle for him in his professional career, especially. So, you know, I think there is some risk there as he's working his way back. This was an injury that we thought, you know, was probably going to end his season.

And it looks like he may, you know, he's aiming to return two months before the end of the season. So there's always going to be the risk of some kind of setback, but we know he can be an impact player. So yeah, I think you should absolutely be trying to get Eli Jimenez on your team. He's going to be DH only. So they're going to have to also figure out what that's going to look like when he's able to play. Well, do you mean in fantasy or? Oh, in fantasy, he's outfield eligible. But he's going, sorry, that was confusing.

He's only going to play DH when he gets back for the white socks. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Because that's how he messed up his peck originally. I think he was trying to rob a home run or something. Yeah. Through his arm over the fence and got messed up.

He's a very ungainly fella out in the out. Brutal. Brutal. That is a nice way for Chris to basically say he's a butcher. He's a butcher out there. The Padres are fun, man. The Padres are really fun. They actually completed the comeback.

They win a walk-off RBI single for Trent Grisham there coming back down from 8 Zip. Imagine being at that game. That is just, that's fun. That's why you go. That's why you go, man. That's great. It's a good thing that came back early, because if they were down like 8-0 and the like 7th. Oh, yeah.

On a Thursday night, I might be taken off. You're like, I'm not too proud to admit it. Like, I'm getting old. Yeah, I mean, you're like, hey, I got to go catch fantasy baseball today when they go live. Exactly. You got to get home. One day after talking about, Sunny Gray was placed on the aisle with a rip. rib cage strain. However, this might just be some kind of roster manipulation to get another arm in the

bullpen for the Reds. Sunny Gray said he doesn't expect to miss his next start, which would come on Sunday, July 18th. That is the first series back after the All-Star break. And I'm kind of wondering, Chris, do you think that's the same case for Clayton Kirshall? I was thinking about him, like maybe the Dodgers are just trying to manipulate things here. He's going, Kirschaw is going for an MRI on Friday. So maybe it's a little bit more serious, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. If it was a If it wasn't serious, I don't think they would say it was elbow inflammation. You know, that, that, I don't know. I would love it if that were the case.

I would hate to see Clayton Kershaw suffer a severe injury and, you know, but, you know, hopefully he is okay. But the next three days, I mean, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we're going to see some real, real ugly pitching matchups. A lot of teams are going to be thrown out bullpen days or calling guys up. it's going to be a little gross. Lots of doubleheaders too, because we had two more postponements on Thursday due to inclement weather.

Cross your fingers on Clinton Kirsh. I hope he's all right. Hope that Joe Ross is all right, too. You know, a couple of days after talking him up. And good reason to be excited about him. Joe Ross goes in the aisle with right elbow inflammation. I hate it. Because every time we talked about it, I kept bringing up, like, he's been, I mean,

it was basically like four years where he just like couldn't pitch or couldn't pitch effectively because of injuries and God, I just hope it's not anything serious. That would just stink for him as much as anything. John Means is expected to pitch three to four innings during his second rehab

start Friday at AA. He's been on the IL with a shoulder injury since early June and he could be back shortly after the All-Star break. And Jose Al-Tuve will skip the upcoming All-Star game due to a leg injury he's been playing through. Jacob de Grom will also skip the All-Star game

to be with his family. Good. Rest up. Get healthy, Jacob deGron. We don't need to see you in the All-Star game. Zach Plissac returned on Thursday against the Royals. He's been out for I want to say it's been like six weeks or something for Zach Pletack. It's been a long time. But Plissac up against

the Royals. He was on a pitch count. Four innings, five hits, three runs, four strikeouts, gave up two home runs, 12 swinging strikes on 55 pitches. That's awesome. Also against the Royals. So keep that in mind. Velocity, spin, rates all looked fine for Zach Plesack.

He did give up a lot of hard contact. So kind of the mixed bag that he's been all season long, you get some good starts, some good here, some bad there. I mean, the thing for him is just there's very little margin for error. His stuff is just okay. He needs to command the ball well. And you look at the home run that he gave up to Carlos Santana. It was a curveball at the belt right in the middle of the strike zone.

Can we just talk about Carlos Santana swing, Chris? Because it is a beautiful swing. When I saw that home run Yeah, that was a very aesthetically pleasing. It was beautiful, man. And especially for Carlos Santana, this is a patient hitter. First pitch, curveball, middle of the zone.

He's just ready. And he just clobbers it. Like, Santana from the left-hand side, one of the most beautiful swings in baseball. And he, you know, what was I going to say? I was going to say something. Oh, he's just super underrated.

He's awesome. Yeah, I mean, especially for, Especially for points leagues. This is the third time in four years. He has more walks than Shrikas. You know, you usually see like the longest home runs or hit the center. I think someone hit the longest home run of the season the other day. And you saw it and it was like, it went like 25 rows up in center field.

And like, that's really impressive. You know that was hit far. But then like you just see a lefty swing out of their shoes. Like Bryce Harper, I think is the most aesthetically pleasing home run hitter. baseball. Yeah. Still. He doesn't hit

as many. He doesn't hit him as far as some people. But when he gets into one and pulls it down the right field line, it's just like,

it looks like the ball's just demolished. Yeah. Especially when he pulls them too, because he can actually go to all fields. Like, he hits a lot of opposite field

home runs too. But in Citizens Bank too, because it's, uh, it's, you know, it creates an illusion because it's so tall.

It's got that right field. It's short but tall that it like, he'll hit it into the fourth deck and you're like, oh my God. And then it's like, That was a 414-foot home run by Bryce Harper. And you're like, no, he hit that 800 feet.

I know exactly what you're talking about. Just real quick on Plyssack, put a bow on this. But I think it's safe to say now, right, halfway through the season, for him and Kenta Maeda, two guys that we had concerns about small sample size last year against really, really favorable opponents. I think that's a lot of what was driving their production last season. Like we had that in the back of our minds throughout all of our analysis

in draft season, we just didn't really know. We didn't, like, did these guys actually just progress as pitchers, or was it all matchups? And I think it was probably more of the latter for both of those guys. Zach Pleasack and Kenza. Mark Hanna. Yeah, he got Pletack at 55. Like, he's fine.

I think that's exactly where I have him, too, so. Twinsies. Yeah, he's, it's that range of, I mentioned it. It's Avaldi, Wade Miley, Plesack, Taiwan, Walker, Kyle Gibson, Anthony Deesclofani. They're all fine. They're okay. And, you know, I'm probably selling some of these guys a little short,

but they're very good. I'll just leave it there. Mark Kana with the A's, Michael Lorenzen with the Reds, and Denelson Lemette with the Padres, will not be back before the break. There were some talk that they might be. Tristan McKenzie will be recalled to start Friday for Cleveland. Josh Bell was doing some work in the outfield prior to Thursday's game.

The Nationals outfield is a little thin right now with Kyle Schwerber and Andrew Stevenson on the eye. IEL. Josh Bell was originally a right fielder in the minors up until 2015. So, I mean, he's awful at first base. I can't imagine it would be much better in right field, but kind of interesting, nonetheless. Michael King was placed on the aisle for the Yankees and was supposed to start on Friday, so it looks like Nestor Cortez will earn that duty instead. Two games were postponed, which I mentioned, the Mets and Pirates, the Blue Jays, and the Orioles. Players not in the lineup on Thursday. Brandon Nimmo with a sore shoulder, Javier Baez with a thumb.

Bryant with the hamstring, and Robbie Grossman with a jammed finger. We're going to take a quick break, but when we return, numbers don't lie. We'll do that next here on Fantasy Baseball Today. Numbers Don't Lie presented by Lining Coogles, and what we're going to do here is we're going to look at some players who have underperformed their expected numbers the most this season, according to Staccast. And a lot of these names we've already talked about this year, Chris, as being by-low candidates. I more so want to know do you think that these guys are actually going to get back on track

because it's weird, but there are full seasons where guys underperform their numbers. I remember two years ago, it was I think Marcelo Zuna just completely underperformed his numbers and then, or maybe it was even three years ago. But it can happen.

It can actually happen for a full season. So these are the hitters that have the biggest difference between their actual weighted-on-base average and their expected Wobah. For those who don't know, by the way, talk about Wobah a lot, but if you didn't know,

it's weighted on base average. It's a version of OBP that weighs how you reach base, so it gives more weight to doubles, triples, home runs, which... And it's... Importantly, it's scaled to OBP. So, like, a... Whatever a great OVP would be,

think of it that way. So, like, an average Wobah, right? The season is 317, I believe. So, you know, that's... right around where the average OBP is. A 400, that's elite. 350, that's good. So, you know, just think of it.

Keep that in mind as we're discussing this. It's also just an all-encompassing offensive stats. So it's something that's more advanced than OPS at this point. So you can look at it that way as well. So Michael Conforto, who we talked a lot about recently, has the third biggest difference between his actual Wobah and his expected Wobah. I don't know that there's anything else that we need to add on him, Chris.

Like, we know he's been awful. We know that he's better than what he's done so far. this season. We've talked him up as a by-low player. I guess it's just, you know, what is your confidence level in him actually getting there? Pretty high. You know, I would say like a seven out of 10. I think he's going to be just fine. The next one on the list is Alex Kirillov, who I've also brought up quite a bit because his quality of contact, according to Stackast, is very good. He has a $2.99 expected batting average, a $5.65 expected slug. But I've been talking about this for like a month now, Chris. and it's not really coming to fruition for Alex Kirloff.

So what do you do when that's the case? Do you still kind of just hold on to him in deeper leagues and hope that he comes around? This is a tough philosophical question because in the long run, players will generally perform towards that. But it's worth keeping in mind that even the people who designed these expected stats,

they didn't design them to be predictive, which is to say they didn't design it so that if a guy has a 315, and a 370x woba, that means you should believe he will have a 370 Woba moving forward. It means that based on what he's done so far, he should have had a 370 Woba. And that's an important distinction because sometimes players skill level changes. And sometimes guys just do get hot or do get cold. Sometimes you just, you get off to a bad start or you have a bad month and you totally earn that bad month.

And sometimes you have bad luck. Kiralov's a hard one, and it's much harder to answer this than Conforto because we don't know who Kirilloff is at the major league level. We haven't seen him here before. We've seen him at the minor league level. And for the most part, he was pretty good. But like his 2019 at AA, he was dealing with a wrist injury. He had like a 756 OPS, which is fine, but certainly not can't miss prospect. So I'm less confident in him, but there's still a lot to like about the way.

he's hitting the ball and it does suggest that he's certainly more talented than his overall numbers show. And you know what's so interesting about Stackass numbers in general is that they take into account everything about your batted ball data. The fact that you're pulling ground balls or you're hitting line drives the other way, they take all of these things into account. And you look at Kierloff and his average launch angle is only six degrees. So normally that wouldn't excite me. But when you look a little bit deeper on FanGraphs, 48% ground ball rate don't love that, 24% line drives, that's a pretty good mark. And he sprays to all fields. That's like, Kiroloff is a professional hitter. So if his pull rate was 50% with a 48% ground ball rate as a left-handed batter, I would hate that. And I would say,

okay, like, he's probably not going to live up to these expected numbers, but I think that they are factoring that in, the fact that he goes up the middle and he goes to the opposite field. And that's why those numbers are what they are. The one thing is when he hits the ball on the ground, he has a 49% pull rate and a 39% rate of hitting it towards the center. He goes the opposite way, just 12%. And so, you know, something that we've talked about is how. No, and this is something that, you know, I remember Heath and I talking about with Eric Cosmer a while ago when we talked about, like, why isn't Eric Cosmer better? And it was because when he hit the ball in the air, he hit it to all fields or even, you know, sometimes to the opposite way more often. And when he hit it on the ground,

he was almost always pulling in. So he was getting in front of the ball and, you know, hitting weak grounders. And that makes you easier to defend. And one way that you can underperform your expected stats is to be easily shiftable. So it's too early to say that with Keroloff, but that's one thing to keep an eye on. Kierloff is 68% rostered on CBS. I don't think that he needs to be rostered in three outfielder leagues. I think I still have them in a points league just because I am buying into those underlying numbers, but you can hold them in all five outfieler leagues, anything shallower than that. I don't think that you need to for now. Kyle Tucker, we've talked about all season long. He has a seventh biggest difference between Woba and expected Wobah

this season. I would still try to buy him if someone just kind of sees the surface numbers and they don't look that great still. So you could buy Kyle Tucker based on that. Juan Soto, Freddie Freeman. We talk about all the time. They're both top 15 in this category. We have the utmost confidence in both of them. Paul Goldschmidt, we've mentioned more so recently, Chris. The expected number is really good for Goldschmidt. And since the start of June, he's actually looked a lot like Paul Gulchman. I think it's a 280 batting average. It's an 850 OPS, which is fine. Like, you know, he's still ranked inside your top 10 first baseman. I think he's right around 12 for me. So, yeah. Paul. Yeah. The, the,

Play discipline is still pretty good. So, yeah, I think he should be better than he has been. It is the best way to put it. Then the last one here, Corey Seeger, he is 30th in this category. And I think now's the time. If you want to try and buy and take a chance, it is risky because he's already had one setback. And it's a fractured hand that he's coming back from. So those can be a little bit tricky.

But if you want to take an upside shot, Corey Seeger, obviously we saw last year what his upside can be. Let's look at some pitchers now, Chris. Pitchers who have the biggest difference between their ERA and expected ERA. Basically, this is just the opposite for pitchers. It's Stackcast has their ERA indicator. They tell you what a pitcher's ERA should have been based on the quality of contact that they allow. So, Eduardo Rodriguez, the sixth biggest difference, just talked about him yesterday. Lucas G. Alito, he is 38th in this category.

I'm actually going to put these three together. Gioledo, Aaronnola, Corbyn, Burns. They're all ranked in the top 50 in this category, Chris. How would you rank them rest of season? Golito, Nola, Corbin, Burns. Burns, Gialito, Nola. I think Nola and Gialita are closer to one another. The thing about Burns is I don't actually believe

that that gap is real or attainable because he has a 181 XERA, which is the best in baseball. I'm pretty sure, if not the best. It's right behind Jacob de Grom. He's probably not the best pitcher in baseball, but he's really, really good.

I think Gialito and Nola will be better than they have been moving forward. I feel pretty confident in that. Burns, I would take the over on a 236 ERA moving forward and definitely the over on a 181 XERA. All right. Chris,

are you all right, man? Go drink some water or cough things out. I don't know what happened. I might have gotten a cat hair in my throat. This happens, you know, if I don't vacuum, like vigorously before I sit down at night. I just, things get really bad.

It's rough, it's rough, man. You got all the cats running around. James and Tyone's another one that we've talked about him the other day with Scott. He has the 39th biggest difference between his current ERA and his expected ERA. You don't have to keep him in your lineup, but I think someone, you can stash on your bench based on the underlying numbers that we've seen this season. So there is still some good there in the profile for James and Tyco. own. The last one I wanted to mention here was Shane McClanahan who we always talk about him.

We don't really tell people why we like them as much as we do, but I'll just give you a one number, 16.6%. That's his swinging strike rate, which would rank top five if he qualified among starting pitchers. So the stuff is filthy, throws high 90s as a lefty, has a wipeout slider. It's actually been throwing more diverse pitches recently like using, I believe it's like a changeup and a curveball as well. So he's working more pitches in. And he's going to deeper into starts, everything that you want to see from Shane McClanahan. So that was our Numbers Don't Lie segment presented by Line and Cougals and I'm looking forward to enjoying a long weekend of baseball before we hit the Midsummer Classic and you know what I'll be watching.

The Yankees and Astros on Saturday. Garrett Cole up against Zach Granke. Can Garrett Cole get back on track? We all hope so. I'll be watching it with an ice cold, line and cougal's summer shandy in my hand. Love drinking the shandy while enjoying a great baseball game with its unique blend of crisp beer and tasty lemonade. And you know the summer shandy isn't all they offer. They also have a Session Hellas, which has all the flavor of a crisp German-style beer that's only 99 calories.

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linee.com. That's L-E-I-N-I-E dot com or follow Lining Coos on Instagram or Facebook for more information about all of the delicious beers that they brew. I want to talk about some pitching standouts from Thursday and Frankie Montas so frustrating, Chris. This is, you see this and you just, you want to rip your hair out or I guess your beard hair Chris. But at the Astros for Frankie Montas, six and two-thirds, one run, 10 strikeouts, 22. swinging strikes on 95 pitches against the team that has the lowest swinging strike rate in all of baseball.

And the inconsistencies have been there all season long. He's got a 4.41 ERA, 1.31 whip. Saw this quote after the game. He said, throw your stuff, trust it, let them hit it. I feel like that was a big part for me today. Just throw strikes, let them swing. Well, I guess it's easier said than done because why don't you just do this all the time, Frankie Montas?

trust your stuff and throw it in the strike zone and see what happens. I don't know. It's been a frustrating few years for Frankie Montas. And it makes it really hard to know exactly how to approach him as a result. There's just been so much inconsistency. He doesn't do a great job over the last two seasons, especially of limiting hard contact. And so when he's not getting those strikeouts, it makes it a lot hard. harder for him to succeed. He is throwing his splitter more this season than he had last

season and he threw it a lot tonight. 29% of his pitches were splitters. It was the highest for his pitches. He threw his slider 24% of the time as well. I would imagine that that's probably one of the highest marks for him all season in terms of slider plus splitter usage. And those were his two best swing and miss pitches as well. So, you know, that that's frustrating.

The fact that, you know, it doesn't seem like you can count on him to do the things that appear to work consistently. And it makes it so that you're going to be chasing these kind of starts. But I don't know if he can deliver them consistently. Yeah, he was started in just 44% of CBS leagues. And I just, I can't blame people. He's 84% rostered. I mean, it's 40% of those people, I'm probably not doing the math, right?

But anyway, a large majority of the people that have him on their team did not have him in their starting lineup. And I just can't knock them for that. So Montas, like Paddock, like Eduardo Rodriguez, one of the more frustrating starting pitchers. Hopefully he can build off of this, but it was a fantastic start against the Astros. On the other side, Lance McCullors, seven innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, 10 swinging strikes on 107 pitches. It's been a little bit lucky this year. 2.94 ERA. He's got a 4.10 X-FIP.

just a 260 bad-up against way too many walks. I think he's up over four walks per nine. He changed his pitch makes this year too. Yeah. McCullors has always been curveball. Fastball, curveball. Yeah, fastball curveball, basically. This year he's throwing a slider for the first time ever, and he's throwing it like 23%

of the time. So more, more than he's throwing his curveball so far. Yeah, it's weird, but he's been good, so. And that's been an effective pitch for him so far this season. I think it was kind of, I feel like I remember him throwing a putter earlier and maybe it's kind of turned into a slider.

He's also throwing that change up, you know, 17% of the time, which is, you know, creeped up as he's gone through his career. And I don't know, it's usually a good thing when a pitcher starts adding pitches, especially like he gets a lot of whiffs with all these pitches. But I don't know if it's necessarily made him a better pitcher. Maybe it's, maybe it's just that those pitches are less taxing on his arm than his fastball on his curveball, in which case, that's a tradeoff we'd make, given how much he's struggled to stay healthy

over the last couple of years, especially. Or really, yeah, he's never thrown more than 128 pitches in an MLB season. You mean ennings, right? Innings, yes. He has thrown more than 128 pitches in a season. He's probably a cell high, and we haven't talked about him in that light yet, but, I mean, if anyone is going to be

on an inning's limit, he spent some time on the IL, so maybe not so much, but given his, history. I think McCullors is probably as much of a sell high as any of those other pitchers we talk about. Yeah, I just it always feels like there's just that extra

level for him. And you know, if he can keep the strike or the walks down, he can get there. But I don't have a ton of faith. I've been thinking about him a lot lately. And like you said, we haven't talked about him much. And that's what I was thinking about. I was like, man, are we overlooking Lance McCullors?

because I see that the sub 3ERA and then once you dive into it it's like I don't I don't know way too many walks almost five walks per nine right now yeah and maybe that comes with throwing a new pitch

a quarter of the time this year you're still kind of learning how to command that pitch so that could definitely be factoring into it you does have a 3.82 expected ERA so those numbers are you know that and the XFIP are kind of similar. There's going to be some regression, I think,

at some point from McCullors. Yeah, I think he is more like a mid-to-high-high 3-ZRA guy than a low-th, or sub-3. The last two pitchers I wanted to mention here, give him a little shout-out. Julio Arreyes at the Marlins, seven-ennings, one-run, nine strikeouts. Awesome

season just continues. He has pitched seven in a start five times in his career. All of those have come this season. Kids' gloves are off for Julio Reyes. Zach Eflin at the Cubs, six shutout with five strikeouts to just one walk. He's got a 3.88 ERA.

Underlying numbers are a little bit better there for Eflin. He's kind of in that mold, right? Like Plesack and Avaldi where he's fine. He's fine. He's had great control this year. One walk or less in 13 of 17 starts for Zach Eflin this season. All right, one more thing to promote. CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55-inch TV,

portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to CBS Sports.com slash home run, H-O-M-E-R-U-N to enter. We'll put the link in the episode description as well. Contest ends July 31st. That's CBSports.com slash home run. No purchase necessary. 18 or over must reside in the United States.

Worryometer on a Friday. Does that make this the furriometer, Chris? I believe that is what Adam would say. Okay. I kind of feel like you should go get one of your cats right now and maybe pet them like Mr. Bigglesworth in Austin Powers. The furiometer in this office is very, very high. Very high.

Well, is it high for Sandy Alcansara, who was up against the Dodgers, four innings, seven hits, five runs. Three of those were earned. Had a really bad error behind him, which extended, I think it was like the fourth or fifth inning. Yeah, it was a big inning. You give the Dodgers more outs.

They're going to make you pay. But the Dodgers in particular have made him pay the season. Two starts against the Dodgers for Alcantara. Five and a third, 14 hits 11 earned runs against that team twice this year. But I want to talk about Chris, the swinging trite. First 10 starts, 14 and a half percent for Alcansara. Last eight starts down to 10 percent. Wariometer, Sandy Alcansara.

Zero. I think it's a zero. like yes it would be better if sannie alcantara had you know for all his stuff and for all his velocity if he had a really really good put away pitch it's kind of surprising that he doesn't because he does have actually a deep arsenal now he throws five pitches consistently if you include the sinker and four seamer kind of throws his change up almost as his first pitch lately I think since the start of june his change up has been his most used pitch you would like to see more whiffs

but like since the start of June he's made eight starts he has a 261 ERA he's thrown 51 innings which is almost seven innings seven innings per start

I think if I'm doing the math in my head correct only 33 strikeouts or 30 gosh I'm doing too much math in my head that's always that's always risky how many strikeouts did he have today

he had I don't have a written down all right yeah So he doesn't have a lot of strikeouts. But this is what we've talked about for a long time. He gets so much weak contact. He is so good at limiting that weak contact. And now he is all of a sudden like an elite control pitcher. He's got a like 6% strikeout rate this season.

Which is 6% walk rate. Yeah, which is one of the most stunning turnarounds that I've ever seen for a starting pitcher from where he was. he was a prospect and when he first got called up, that he's almost like Kyle Hendricks, but with 10 miles per hour more. He's Kyle Hendricks who throws a change up four miles per hour harder than Kyle Hendricks throws his fastball. But that's kind of,

you know, that was the comp that I made early, you know, coming into the season and five strikeouts today. So I don't really like, he's got a 326 XERA. I think he's just good. Yes. And definitely in points leagues.

He gives you a ton of volume. Chris, I'm just going to throw these two names at you together because there's a few other things I want to get to. Tyler Malley at the Brewers, six endings, three runs, six strikeouts. The spin rates remain down. His slider velocity was down almost three miles per hour. He has eight walks over his last two starts.

And then Danny Duffy, five innings, one run, five strikeouts. Actually, this was his highest pitch count and highest innings pitched since returning from the IL. but his fastball velocity was a season low 92.9 miles per hour. So Malley Duffy, any concern? I mean, I'm pretty skeptical of Duffy at this point. Just I'm not sure he can stay healthy. And even if he does, I'm not sure he'll be super effective.

So I think he's dropable. Whereas Malley, I'm still in on Malley. I still think he can be good moving forward. So, yeah, not too much concern there. Definitely on Duffy. I'd be willing to drop him. Thursday Dingers. Brad Miller, we mentioned at the top, had a triple dong. Carlos Santana had a double dong.

He's now up to 15 home runs. Fran Mill Reyes hit a walk-off three-run homer. He has 14 home runs in just 45 games. That is a 46 homer pace over 150 games. Fran Mill Reyes. If you need power, buy high. Eric Haas for the Tigers hit his 13th home run. He now has five homers over his last seven games.

Mitch Hanigur hit his 19th. And Bobby Bradley's batting average is plummeting, but he did hit his ninth home run in just 29 games. Some leftovers, Starling Marte, went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. As soon as I moved him inside of my top 10 outfielders, because he was just doing awesome things, last 20 games for Starling Marte, a 167 batting average with a 64% ground ball rate.

So thanks a lot there, Starling Marcy. Eight stolen bases is still a nice consolation prize, though. Yeah, for sure. Whitmeryfield went one for four with an RBI and his two. 24th steel. Terrick Scuba actually was cruising. He was having a great start against the Minnesota Twins.

I think they left him in just a little bit too long. His final inning, they brought him out for the seventh. He gave up a solo homer, a couple of hits in that inning and kind of really skewed his line here. But before that, he was pitching very well.

Spin rate on the slider down 200 RPM for Scoobel, but that's pretty consistent. I think there was probably something going on with the Tigers, though. I mean, every time I look at a pitcher's baseball savant, page now, their spin rates are down. So I'm fairly certain it was like 90% of the league that was

using something. The call to the pen, some bullpen updates for Oakland. Lou Trevino was used in the eighth inning to face 9-1-2 in the lineup. Jake Deekman got his seventh save of the season. They probably wanted him in there against Yurdon Alvarez and Kyle Tucker in the ninth, which makes sense. This is Dekeman's first save since May 26th. So it's been a while. For the Royals, Scott Barlow is now two times in a row where he was not used in the ninth inning and he blew a lead. So he came out in the eighth.

He had a, he gave up the, I think it was a three run lead. No, it was a two run lead. He gave up a three run homer to Roberto Perez. Cleveland took the lead at that point. So the Royals are... This is what happens with bad teams with bad bullpens.

The Reds and the Royals, Chris, are the Spider-Man meme. Like one in the AL, one in the NL. I just don't want any... Reds are better. I think they have better pitchers at least. But yeah. I mean, gosh, Brad Brock.

More talented, at least. Brad Brock gave up two runs today. Brad Brock is not one of the good pitchers I was referring to. What Amir Garrett we thought was good coming into the season. He's been awful this year. Anton was great. Lucas Sin was mostly good. Those guys are on the I-L now.

But you're right. When they're healthy, they are much better than anyone the royals have. For the twins, Taylor Rogers picked up his eighth save. Hansel Robles, was not used since July 5th, so he should have been available. This is Taylor Rogers' first save since June 19th, and Josh Hader got his 21st save of the season.

To stream or not to stream for the weekend, Alex Cobb at Seattle. Well, we'll start with Friday. Alex Cobb at Seattle, Jordan Lyles versus Oakland, Cole Irvin at the Rangers, Zach Thompson versus the Braves, Shane McClannahan versus the Blue Jays, Brad Keller at Cleveland.

I would be willing to use Cobb. McClainahan Thompson and Irvin Thompson would probably be last on the list just because the matchup against the Braves on Saturday we have raw stripling at the Rays Bailey Ober versus the Tigers Chris Flexon versus the Angels Tyler McGill versus the Pirates Mike Miner at Cleveland and Patrick Sandival at the Mariners I can actually see a case for all of these guys I think Sandival is probably my favorite for Sunday Jamison Tyone at the Astros Morgan versus the Royals.

Colby Allard versus the A's. John Gray at the Padres. Ryan Weathers versus the Rockies. And Jose Suarez for the Angels at the Mariners. Weathers and Gray are the only two I would be interested in. And probably weather's a little more. But don't love it. Yeah, I don't love that Sunday either.

Yeah, don't use James and Tyone. Although he's coming off his best start of the season, that's kind of just like a... Justin. That's a show me. I want to see what happens in that game. James and Tyone at the Astros. I will wrap up quickly with a few emails here. This one's from Tony. Gavin Lux was a prize prospect not that long ago and it's currently just 23 years old, but he's fairly ordinary even with more playing time this year. So what does his value look like in a keeper format? How does he compare over the long term to other young second baseman? Well, that last part's kind of a loaded question.

But yeah, Gavin Lux is batting 236 this year. Plate is a disbanded. one's actually solid. 10% walk rate, 23% strikeout rate, still awful against lefties. 432 OPS. I don't know, Chris, this is a tough one because we were, we were all kind of clamoring for him to get more playing time. The Dodgers have given him exactly that, but he hasn't really done anything with it. Yeah, there's really not much of impressive about his profile. I mean, he's been awful against lefties, 432 OPS. Yeah. Only 761 against righties. He's still young enough to figure out, but the bad ball profile is not exactly impressive.

He's not running as much as he should, given the fact that he does have close to elite speed. I think he's a buy low for a keeper of dynasty, but I'm... It's really only the one elite season in the minors, so I'm

still pretty iffy on him. This one's from Tony. Just wondering what you guys think about Brandon Nimmo. I currently play in a 12-team categories league, and I'm wondering what you think Nimmo will do for the rest of the season. Very high OBP.

He's leading off for a solid Mets lineup. He's going to score runs. Modest power, a little bit of speed. He's fine. I'm not like terribly excited about him. Yep. He will get on base a lot. He's really good for OBP leagues.

Everywhere else, I think he's, you know, a fringe fifth outfielder type. I think that's fair. From Ryan, grade the trade, 12 team head to head points, Dynasty League. I traded away. Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, who is a shortstop outfield.

I think he plays both of those. Prospect for the Minnesota Twins. And a first round pick in our prospects only draft, I received Lucas Gialito. And Royce Lewis is out for this season after tearing's ACL. Yeah. That seems like a lot. Correa, Royce Lewis, and a first round pick in a prospects only draft. Yeah, I mean, I think Correa for Gialito wouldn't be straight.

up fair, but you might have overpaid, but he's in first place. Yeah. He's got a shortstop. He's stacked at, apparently. I think it's okay. And it's a points league, too, so I guess you do want the pitching. Yeah. I'll give it a...

I think it's okay. C plus. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. C plus. I think Correa and Lewis, or just Correa and the pick, might have got it done. I think that might have been fair enough. This one's from Brian. Would you try to trade for Jake Croninworth by offering Trey Mancini and Polanco. I'm going to assume

that's Jorge Polanco. I have Joey Votto at first base with Mancini not performing for a long time now and he has Tim Anderson who has done nothing for him at shortstop. Tim Anderson has done nothing. What are you talking about? Stolen a bunch of bases. He hasn't been quite as good as we expected but yeah he's like a sub

Tim Anderson's still a top 10 shortstop. Yeah 100%. So yeah would you give up Mancini and Polanco for Cronoworth? So like I know Cronowardeworth is in the All-Star game? Is he starting the All-Star game? No, he's definitely. That would mean he's... No, no, no. Because Adam Fraser is starting at second base for the national league.

He hasn't had that great of a season, I would say. He's had... He's hot, though. Kronomworth has been hot. Yes, he's had like a good three weeks. He's got a 1089 OPS over the last three weeks. Before that, he had a 737 OPS. And so you're kind of just looking at like... Kroninworth's been hot lately. Mancena's been cold lately, but... I think Mancini is the better header. I think what's happening here is you're getting swindled by whoever you're trading with, because they're trying to hit you with the old sell high, and they're buying low on Trey Mancini.

So, I think Mancini. I don't think you do that. Mancini for Cronoward is, I guess, fair-ish. Yeah, but I think it's fair-ish, but I would rather have Mancini. I agree with that, yeah. Let alone giving up Polanco. All right. We're going to wrap there.

For Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.