Fantasy Baseball Today - Giolito Traded to the Angels! Valdez Struggles & Alcantara Bounce-Back! (7/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 27, 2023

Lucas Giolito was traded to the Angels (1:10)! Which prospects did the White Sox receive? ... Freddy Peralta tied a career-high with 13 strikeouts (10:10). ... Framber Valdez has struggled over the past month (13:18). ... Amed Rosario was traded to the Dodgers (18:10). ... The Giants promoted top prospect Marco Luciano (25:22). ... Sandy Alcantara had a vintage performance against the Rays (28:18). ... Joe Ryan has struggled recently (32:50). ... News (37:20): Aaron Judge could return Friday. ... Eloy Jimenez and Nolan Gorman have turned it on in July (42:30). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (53:40). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott and Chris. Pack your bags, Lucas Gilito, because you're headed to the Angels. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Thursday, July 27th.

I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, what a day. We've got trades. Gialito headed to the Angels, Ahmed Rosario headed to the Dodgers, Marco Luciano was promoted by the Giants. What's going on with Framber Valdez and Joe Ryan? Hitters turning up in July.

There's just so much to talk about. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We really do appreciate it. Chris, let's just jump on in with the video.

Jump on in with this trade. Lucas Gielito traded to the Angels. Here is the full trade. The Angels received Lucas Gilito and Ronaldo Lopez, while the White Sox received two prospects, catcher Edgar Quero and pitcher Kai Bush. Let's start off with Gialito, who is a California native, so this is a homecoming of sorts.

Thought he was going to honestly be traded to the Dodgers. That seemed like a match made in heaven. But, you know, the Angels kind of swoop in here and they make their move. Gialito, having a fine year, 379 ERA, 120 to whip over a strikeout per inning. He is currently the SP 37 in Roto,

SP 31 in head-ted points. Does this change anything for Lucas Gilito's value? I think if you look at the park factors, they'll say that it's probably a downgrade for Lucas Gialito. I don't buy that necessarily. I think it's probably neutral at worst. Lucas Giulio's home road splits are actually slightly tilted towards the road. I think if anything, there was a decent chance Lucas Gledo was going to see some regression anyway

because his underlying numbers don't necessarily back up what he's done so far. But I generally think he's probably going to be fine with this move. If anything from a fantasy perspective, the same slight downgrade we give every Angel's pitcher because of the six-man rotation. but even that, at this point in the season, you're probably talking maybe one fewer turn through the rotation. So it doesn't really make a big impact.

I updated my rankings here on Wednesday, and I've got Lucas Gilito at SP 47, which, you know, that's, he's kind of on the fringe. I wouldn't call him a must-start pitcher. He's kind of close to it, I guess. You have Gilito at SP 41, so we're in a similar range. And while you were talking, the wheels started

turning and I think the six-man rotation actually might affect him more than we're leading on because he's almost certainly never going to be a two-star pitcher. Right, right, but that, if you really think about, like, if you actually like plot it out, how many times was he likely to be a two-star pitcher the rest of the way anyway? Maybe twice, two or three, three times at most. So like two or three, yeah. It's probably none now, maybe one at the most. So yeah, there's, I think that matters. It certainly matters. But then you start to think like in a head-to-head points league where the season doesn't run all the way to the end anyway. Does it really matter all that much?

Because it's possible that none of those would have happened during the playoffs or that one of them would have happened after your season ended anyway. So it's a it's a negative, but it's not, it's easy to overstate, I think. And over the course of eight weeks, it's probably not going to change its value very much. Before we move over to the prospects that the White Sox received, let's just wrap things up on the Angels side here. Who's going to go to the bullpen? My guess is it'll be Chase Silseth, and their new six-man rotation will feature Otani,

Lucas Gilito, Reed Detmers, Tyler Anderson, Griffin Canning, and Patrick Sandoval. I guess the overarching theme here with the Angels is that they're not trading Shoahe Otani, right? There was a report that came out on Wednesday that basically they swapped mindsets. They're like, nope.

We're not trading Otani. In fact, we're going to be buyers. And that's exactly what they did. They go out and trade for both Lucas G. Lito and Rinaldo Lopez. Obviously, Lopez will pitch in the bullpen. I don't think he has any value for fantasy. What about the prospects that the White Sox received?

Edgar Quero, a 20-year-old catcher this season in the minors. Not doing too hot. 246 batting average. Three home runs, 718 OPS. He was much better last year. so hopefully he can pick it back up after this trade. Kai Busch, a 23-year-old former second-round pick back in 2021. He is a left-handed pitcher, has made 34 starts in the minors, 447 ERA, a 1-3-0 whip over a strikeout per inning.

And I was texting with the Welsh, just trying to get his read on these two players. He said for Edgar Quiro, quote, really good young bat, more walks and strikeouts. And for Kai Busch has been injured, decent fastball, really good slider. for pitch mix. Chris, your thoughts on the package that the White Sox receives here for Gileo. If you're going to trade any type of prospects, catchers and starting pitchers are by far the most volatile types of prospects. I mean, I did a little exercise before we started where I was looking at the top catchers and baseball prospectuses top 100 over the, from 2017 to 2020. And it's like, 2017 was like Jorge Alfaro, Francisco,

Maca, Chance Cisco, Carson Kelly, Zach Collins. The following year, Francisco, Mahi, Jorge, Alfarro, Carson Kelly, Cabert Ruiz. The following year, Francisco Mejah, Kbert Ruiz, Joey Bart, M.J. Melendez, Danny Jansen.

Sean Murphy, but it's all to say that, one, look at how long it took Sean Murphy to figure it out, to become an impact player. It's, these are long shot players. Catchers take a long time to develop. They are very volatile on starting pitchers, obviously may not take as long to develop,

but they're incredibly volatile assets. So I don't know. I've seen a lot of criticism of the Angels. Oh, they're going to let Shohei Otani walk for nothing. And like, your four games back of the wild card, your three games over 500,

I feel like it would be, I don't know, I can't say it would be dumb to sell Otani. But it's a lot more fun to try to go make the playoffs with Shohei Otani because once you get there, you've got Shohei Otani and Mike Trout and you can switch to like a three or foreman rotation, you've got a chance. And I just, I don't know, I'm not with this like,

if you're not the overwhelming title contender, you should probably trade everyone that's good on your team. Like, I just feel like that mindset has gone too far. You're not going to get the prospects that you're going to get for trading show, Hey, Otani are not going to trade dramatically alter the the trajectory of your franchise for a two month rental. So just go get it. Go go for it. I think it's, It's way more fun to do this. And, you know, as far as Edgar Quiro and Kai Bush, if we see them in 2024, I think that's probably a best case scenario for either of them, given where they are in their careers. They're, you know, both a AA, but neither's doing extremely well right now.

So, yeah, I don't think either of them's likely to matter anytime soon for fantasy. Yeah, there's a lot of points there on that, what you said about Otani. part of the reason why the angels kind of flip their mindset here is because they said all the trade packages they were receiving were underwhelming. And that's kind of crazy to think about. Even for a rental Otani, this is a generational player, something we've never seen before. You should be getting crazy trade packages, I think, for Otani. The angels aren't going to like, if Otani leaves this offseason, Edgar Cuero and Kyle, Kai Bush, I keep wanting to call him Kyle Busch. Kai Busch are not going to change whether this team is any good in the next five years, right?

Like, if either of them becomes even an average player, that's a huge win. So, yeah, I don't, I just, you might as well go for it because you're, you're going over the cliff if Otani leaves either way. You know, Edgar Quero isn't a, isn't a parachute. Most of the time, I agree that if you know, if you're just confident, you're not going to resign a player, you should trade them. in the final year of their contract, especially if you don't think that you're going to compete. You should try and recoup some of those assets. I generally agree with that.

But as you pointed out, you don't have to be the best team in baseball to make a run, man. We just saw the Phillies make the World Series last year. This team always comes to mind as like the Cinderella story, the Rockies, the year that they made it against the Red Sox in the World Series. They had no business being there. The best team doesn't always make the World Series.

The Angels, with Geolito and Otani, and if Mike Trout's healthy, that's a team that can actually make a run if they make it into the playoffs. The Cardinals won a World Series with 83 wins. That's not going to happen. You can't do that. You can't bank on that.

But the point is, the baseball playoffs are a crap shoot. And just getting in should be the goal. And I hope the Angels aren't done making moves. All right. We shall see what happens there again. Lucas Julito headed to the Angels in return for two prospects, Edgar Quero and pitcher Kai Bush.

We'll get back into the trades and the Marco Luciano promotion in just a bit. But let's get into the rest of Wednesday's action. Oh my goodness gracious. Ah, out of girls, Susan. The Yankees got their revenge. Splitting the Subway series for the season, two, two and two for both teams. Chris, you are up. Player of the Night. Freddie Peralta, who is on a decent little run starting to turn things around.

I believe tied his career higher and out. not his career high. Tide the Brewer season high for strikeouts with 13. I think this is the second most he's had in a game in his career. I have career high. Was it a career high? Let's see. I'm looking at all dates here on Fangraphs. And yeah, his previous high was 13. Okay, 24 swings and misses on 89 pitches. Probably could have gone deeper. They decided to pull him at 89. It was really hot at this game. So, you know, not necessarily super surprising from what I could tell. But yeah, he's starting to show signs of turning it around the ERA over the past in the month of July is down to 363, 34 strikeouts and 22 in a third innings, 39 strikeouts in 32 and a third innings in the month of June. So a bunch of strikeouts over the past two months. And obviously, that's always been part of his game. But the strikeouts were down early on in the season when he

was really struggling. And I think this is a good sign. You know, that fastball he had Uh, sorry, I had it in front of me. 12 swings and misses with it, seven on the slider. Five with the change up in curveball as well, which he didn't really throw a ton. So yeah, it, the fastball is always the key for Freddie Peralta. That, you know, he's, he's one of those guys. He throws about 55% of the time, but gets a lot of whiffs within. It's really important for him.

So the fact that he's starting to get whiffs with that pitch again, it's a very good sign. And look, we, we don't have to rehash yesterday. Today's conversation. You can go back and listen to it. I'm sure that we'll be referencing everything we talked about yesterday for the rest of the season and into the offseason, the glob and all that. Peralta has always been a bit of a random number generator. You know, he has peaks and valleys that tend to be pretty extreme. But I never wanted to give up on him this season.

And I'm glad I didn't. I've moved him down into like the 40 or 50 range at starting pitcher, but I never moved him much. further down than that. So I mentioned I updated the rankings. Let's see, where did I get Freddie Peralta? I got him at SP 57, which it might be a little bit low. Look, he gets a ton of strikeouts this year, but man, those peripher, I mean, those ratios, 446 ERA and a 125 whip.

I mean, those are just killers for him. You can argue maybe he should be a little bit higher. Maybe he goes on a run here. Something I noticed about this start is that he did throw his slider more in this one. And that is far and away his best pitch and has a 48% whiff rate on the season. But the problems for Peralta this year, the walks are the highest they've been since 2020. His home runs, the highest they've been since 2019, 1.5 home runs per 9.

That's been a problem here for Peralta. So unless he can get those things under control, I think we're probably still going to see some inconsistency. The strikeouts are awesome. Let's hope that Freddie Peralta can build off of this moving forward. Somebody who did the opposite of Freddie Peralta, that would be. Framber Valdez, who clearly has not been the same since he sprained his ankle on June 20th. More on that in just a bit.

Up against the Texas Rangers here, he went three and two-thirds innings. He allowed six runs. Two homers in this game, 11 hard hits allowed, 93 mile per hour, average exit velocity. I was watching this start. And even looking at the pitch mix, it just kind of seems like everything was off for Framber Valdez here. He did not throw his cutter at all. That's a pitch he usually throws 15% of the time. He didn't use his curveball as much.

That's usually a very dominant pitch for Framber Valdez. He raised his change-up and his sinker usage. It's just weird because the cutter and curve are arguably his two best pitches. So just something off for Valdez here. And it has been for quite some time. His last five starts, a 7.0 ERA, a 1.67 whip during that time. He's allowing a lot of hard contact. there is an argument here, Chris, that this is just natural regression, right? The ERA is up to

329. That's normal and that's still a really, really good pitcher. So maybe he was just regressing. He has allowed a lot of hard contact this year. Maybe those are just starting to fall in for hits or fall in for home runs. But this five-star stretch does coincide with Framber Valdez leaving with a sprained ankle back on June 20th. So my lean is that he might just kind of be pitching through that right now. Yeah, it's been a weird season because he was really dominant for such a long time, but it was so different than what we've come to expect from Frambervaldez. Strikeout rate up 27% was a career high this season, previous career high. It had been 23.5%.

I guess he had 26% in 2020, but that was such a small sample size. Yeah, I don't really know what to make of him across the board because it's been, like you said, the hard contact way up. That's always been something he's been very good at. strikeout rate way up. In this start, like you said, not throwing the curveball and cutter. Those are his two best pitches by far. So this one, this specific start just seems like, yeah, he wasn't right.

And he ran into arguably the best lineup in baseball. But overall, the struggles, I don't exactly know what to make of it. Like, because he's such a different pitcher than he's been in the past. in it. I think generally on the whole, he's probably still a very, very good pitcher, but it might just be that because there's more hard contact in his profile right now, maybe it leads to him being a little more prone to these kind of blowups. Maybe it's like you said, the ankle injury. I don't have a good read on him, unfortunately. Yeah, I have in my most important league. So I've watched a lot of Valdez and he just hasn't looked right recently. So I don't know, maybe I'm just making

excuses for him. Again, has allowed a lot of hard contact. So it might just be catching up to him. Framber Valdez in line for two starts next week, up against the Cleveland Guardians and at the Yankees. Might have Aaron Judge back in the lineup by then. We'll see. But I think obviously we're still rolling with Framber Valdez, but maybe just lower expectations compared to what we got earlier on in the season. Chris, did you see this whole Marcus Semyon situation between him and Valdez? Yeah. It was crazy. Lots of drama in this game. So, Yuron, Alvarez, Your Don Alvarez, was hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance. First, off the IL, right?

Marcus Semyon then hit by a pitch in his next plate appearance. Was it retaliation? Potentially. And then later on, Marcus Semyon launches a two-run homer off of Framber Valdez in his next plate appearance and then just stares him down the entire time while running the bases. It was so blatantly obvious. It was like, is this guy going to get, you know, just tossed in the middle of, like, rounding the basis. It was crazy. Some tripping

going on and Maldonado started it, it sounds like. Really? I don't know. Yeah, so there was a quote from Semyon after the game. The Astros hit a home run and Maldenado said to him or Semian said to Maldonado, yeah, we're still going to win this game. And Maldonado

said, no, it's just like when you were in Oakland. And so when Simeon hit the hit that home run. Yeah. You know, I wanted to make sure that Maldonado was aware of it in case he might have missed it from his vantage point. That is awesome. This type of intensity,

I love it. In a divisional series, that's clearly incredibly important between the Astros and the Rangers. That's awesome stuff, man. It's not just the trash talk, but then actually backing it up, three hits, home run, chirping,

benches clear, ejected from the game. It was pretty fun to watch. Maybe not if you're an Astros fan, but I thought it was pretty awesome. We had some other trades. Let's quickly run through some of these. Ahmed Rosario traded to the Dodgers. in exchange for Noah Cinderguard?

So I had a really weird moment when this trade went down because for some reason, I thought that Ahmed Rosaria had signed an extension with the Guardians this offseason. I was thinking of Jimenez. Andres Jimenez, yeah. But I guess there had been a talk that they were talking about in extension. So my thought was like, man, they really just salary dumped Ahmed Rosario.

And then it was like, oh, no, his contract's expiring. at the end of this this season. I was completely blanked on that, but weird trade either way. The Guardian's taking on money, it seems like. Yeah. It is weird. It is weird. They need some help on the back end of their rotation right now

with the injuries to Shane Bieber and McKenzie. They probably still do. Yeah. For Rosario, he has not been good this year. Let's make that very clear. 265 batting average, three homers, nine steals, a 675 OPS. I saw some defensive metrics that point out,

He has been very bad defensively as well. I have some questions here, Chris. Does he play every day? I know for his career, he's been much better against left-handed pitching than he has against righties, but, you know, the Dodgers have been throwing Miguel Rojas out there at shortstop.

And, you know, they just got Kike Hernandez to likely play second base. I think he's probably going to play close every day. What are your thoughts on Amid Rosario to the Dodgers? Yeah, I would guess it's not every single day, but maybe like 75, 80%. And it's probably on net a loss for Ahmed Rosario's fantasy value. He has been playing better since what, the start of June.

OPS is up to like $750 in that span. The one thing that I would think maybe you could take out of this is just we have a lot of faith in the Dodgers optimizing the skill sets of their players and the players that they acquire. And Ahmed Rosario is a guy that we've always talked about at the high end has pretty good exit velocities. the overall quality of contact metrics aren't usually all that great, but he's very, very fast. And that's the one thing we've talked about with him and Andres Manazes, man, these guys both seem like they could steal 35 bases and they don't.

I don't know if the Dodgers are going to unleash him. But that's the one thing is maybe just like a change of scenery and a different set of eyes and a different coaching staff, maybe unlock some latent potential there. But on the whole, my assumption would be this would be a negative, for Ahmed Rosario, who's probably, you know, when he plays, he's probably going to bat lower in the lineup, maybe ninth for the Dodgers. So not a ton to be excited about here. Ahmed Rosario, 65% rostered, names like CJ Abrams, Hassan Kim. They have moved up over 80%.

And very clearly, we would rather have those names than Ahmed Rosario. But one name that I had for later on, Chris, is Tim Anderson, who is hitting better so far in the month of July. well rather in the second half. Let's say you missed out on Abrams, you missed out on Hassan Kim. You're looking for a shortstop, a middle infielder. Would you rather have Ahmed Rosario with the Dodgers or Tim Anderson hoping that, you know, this second half turns out much better than the first?

I'd rather have Tim Anderson. I mean, he's been worse than Alamed Rosario this season, but he's been a lot better than him the previous three or four. So I would definitely rather bet on that guy. We know there's more upside there. And he's an interesting one in terms of, is he a trade candidate? Because I saw some talk that the White Sox obviously already traded Lucas Golito and Lance Lynn seems likely to move.

I don't know if anybody's banging down the door for Lance Lynn. Another bad start for him tonight. But there was a something I saw, you know, Sarah say that they're not looking to punt on 2024. And Tim Anderson is under contract for 2024. It's a team option. That makes it iffy. I could see him being traded. That's actually someone I thought that Marlon should.

try to go get as a buy low, but I would rather have Anderson than Rosario. Yeah, I think if you're the White Sox and you do kind of want to keep some of this team together, look, I think it's probably better for the White Sox to sell and just kind of build everything back up. But now is probably not the time to trade Tim Anderson because his value is probably the lowest it's ever been in his career. So might not make much sense there. But it's also, if he doesn't turn around, there's a decent chance he's DFA this year, this offseason. or that they don't pick up the option, I guess.

Yeah, that is correct. You might be right about that. As a result of Ahmed Rosario getting traded, it sounds like the Guardians are going to call up Oscar Gonzalez here on Thursday. I don't know if he's going to play every day. I did want to point out that since the start of June, he has played much better in the minors.

301 batting average, eight home runs, two steals, with an 879 OPS, just a name in very deep leagues. 15 team, Roto, five outfielders, or AL only, Oscar Gonzalez. We liked him as a sleeper coming into the season

and then things just kind of went sideways for him. Yeah. Who plays shortstop for the Guardians moving forward? Gabriel Arias started there on Wednesday and I think he actually stole a base too. I think long term what they're looking at here

is their 22 year old prospect named Brian Rokio. This season in the minors has hit 298 with 19 steals and an 816 OPS. He has been much better in the past. But I think he's a name to watch. Again, in deeper leagues, it's Brian Rokio could get a chance to play shorts up for the Guardians. I don't think there's much to add on Noah Cinegrad, right, Chris? No. And the other very much smaller trade on Wednesday, the Marlins, your Marlins, they traded away Dylan Floreau for Jorge Lopez. What was the point of this trade, Chris?

Dylan Floro has much better underlying metrics than Jorge Lopez. And Jorge Lopez is under contract or is arbitration eligible for 2024. And Dylan Flora is not. I think that's all it is. The Marlins probably view it as a lateral move with an extra year of club control. That's my only assumption. There was some talk that they think that they can fix him. And maybe they can.

He still throws really hard. He's been pretty awful for about a year since he got traded to the twins. So I don't know. I saw Craig Mish said this means the Marlins are buying. And it's like, well, if this is the part of the store they're shopping at, I don't know if I want to call that buying. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I don't know about that one.

Let's take our first break. And when we return, we will talk about Marco Luciano promoted by the Giants. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back. And if you are interested in buying some fantasy baseball today merch, you can do exactly that at the Paramount Shop, which offers a mountain of merch from the Paramount shows and movies that you love. Scan the QR code in the top right corner.

If you're watching us on YouTube or head to paramount shop.com, Paramount Shop where products are Paramount. And if you're watching us live, see this little nifty fantasy baseball today hat, you can get exactly one of these over at the Paramount Shop. Prospect promotion, Chris, we saw the Giants. They promoted Marco Luciano, was batting eighth in the lineup here on Wednesday.

21-year-old has ranked very high. on prospect lists for years now. He broke out as a teenager back in 2019, but the numbers never really got back to that level when he was playing down there in rookie ball. It's been solid. He comes with a lot of power. That's the standout tool here.

62 games in the minors this season for Marco Luciano. 235 batting average, 13 home runs, and an 8-11 OPS, though it does come with a lot of strikeouts. 24% rostered. Chris, any interest here in Marco, Luciano and does he stick around because they have some names returning soon? Yeah, between, you know, guys coming back from injury, Terror Estrada and Brandon Crawford primarily. It's, it doesn't seem super likely that he's going to get, you know, a long stint.

But he did make the jump after only six games at AAA. So it's possible that they're just being aggressive with him and giving him a real chance to see if he can catch fire. Obviously, super talented. Scouts have always loved the bat. speed in particular in the raw power as a result of it. But there have been back issues over the past couple of seasons and a lot of strikeouts this year. And that's started to become more of an issue as he's gotten to the high minor.

So I think in all likelihood, he's probably not going to stick around for too long and probably won't make a big impact if he does because it's the Giants. He was lifted for a pinch hitter in his debut. That's what they do. This is a team that loves to not just platoon, but play matchups. and that makes it hard to predict when guys are going to be in the lineup and just kind of limits the upside of all but a few guys in the lineup. So my guess is that this is probably not a priority ad,

but he's clearly super talented. If you've got a roster spot to play with that you don't have anyone else to add for, sure, go for it. Yeah, I have deeper leagues where I am struggling at middle infielder. I think I'm starting Oswald Paraza, or Luis Garcia from the Nationals. And it's, look, if you're just trying to catch lightning in a bottle, pick them up and let's see where it goes.

Again, that's Marco Luciano with the Giants. And, you know, I don't usually look at the Giants as a team that's aggressive in their prospect promotions. But look, between Matos and Luciano, two 21-year-olds in the lineup here on Wednesday, they have been pretty aggressive. One of the batted balls for Luciano, by the way, 99.1

eggs of velocity 338 feet to the opposite field to right field would have been a home run in one park Yankee Stadium so

there you go just pointing that out I saw that at bad and he got some first pitch he got some pretty good wood on it but we'll see if Marco Luciano

can A stick in the lineup and hit for power with the Giants let's move over to some pitching performances and we got vintage Sandy Alconso here on Wednesday

a complete game at the Tampa Bay raise, a race team that is scuffling big time right now. Five hitter, one walk, seven strikeouts with 19 swinging strikes on at 97 pitches. Did allow eight hard hits in this game, but I noticed a pitch mix change for Sandy. Not drastic, but... Yeah, everything's always going to be 20 to 30% for him. But I think it's worth noting. He threw his slider 28% in this start. It's 21% on the season. That has been his best whiff pitch this year, 37% whiff rate on that slider for Sandial O'Consora. Even after this start, ERA's in the mid-fours, we've got a 1-2-4 whip.

I'm hoping he could build off it a big second half. But Chris, this was a step in the right direction for Sandial Concerra. Yeah, I think the bigger thing, if you're looking at the pitch mix, might be the sinker usage going down. Because that's something he's been throwing his sinker more this season. And it makes sense in as much as it's a pitch that he can get ground balls with, but he gets ground balls with pretty much everything he throws. And the biggest issue, he's throwing his sinker 22% of the time against a left-handed batters. Last season was 16% of the time.

And that's a trend that you don't really want to see. Smart organizations, there was a really good piece. I want to say in fan graphs recently about just pitchers, the success rate, the pitcher tap throwing their sinkers against opposite-handed headers. And that's not what you generally want to see. And so hopefully going away from the sinker, especially against lefties, will help him out because I think that's part of what his struggles have been. But look, my thing with Sandy Alcounter has been across the board that I just, I haven't really had a good sense of why he's been so bad. And so I've expected him to turn it around. You know, I've dropped

him in the rankings a bit, but I don't think he's gotten lower than 15. at any point for me. And maybe he's lower for you or Scott, but I have faith that he's going to turn it around and it very well could have happened today. I'm looking at the rankings now, Chris. You haven't met SP 17. I haven't met SP 18.

This is Sandy Alcansara. And should I say the word? Should I say the word, Chris? If I drop him any lower, we get into the glob. And he's not in the glob. I don't know. Maybe he deserves to, like,

the way he has pitched this year. He has deserved to be a lot. the glob this year. He has deserved it, but we know that there's much more upside in there than we've seen. And this is something that like I've, I had somebody on Twitter say, I'm going to drop Sandy Alcantra. I was like, fine. Drop Sandy Alcantra. Who are you adding that is going to make it worth dropping him? Nobody, probably. But like, if you feel that's what you needed to do after his most recent start, okay. But this is always the reason why you shouldn't. Because anybody that you're going to add nobody that you're going to add has complete game shutout as a realistic outcome

every time they take them out. This is a guy who had six complete games, three shutouts last season, led the league in both regards was going. Like Scott mentioned in yesterday's podcast, one thing that can differentiate pitchers from the glob is we'll throw Gavin Williams today. What do you go? Four and two thirds in this one? Just four innings. Four innings. that's a reasonable outcome for Gavin Williams. He didn't actually pitch all that poorly. It's not like he got crushed. It was just he was inefficient.

He got pulled after, I think, 87 pitches and four innings. And like, that's a thing that happens to a lot of pitchers with talent in Major League Baseball today. The best case scenario for Gavin Williams, most times he goes out there, is going to be seven innings. The best case for Sandy Alcantra is nine innings every time. He can, he can legitimately do that. and that's something that very few pitchers can say. So even if you're frustrated, even if you're disappointed, even if you don't think he's going to be as good as he was last season moving forward,

he's still too good to give up on. And I think he's one of those players. While it's been frustrating, you just leave him in the lineup because I had people tweet at me today saying, this is why you don't bench Daniel O'Connor because the first time you do, you wind up missing out on a start like this. So let's move over to some pitchers who did not pitch as well. as Sandy on Wednesday. Another rough outing for Joe Ryan,

which pushes his ERA up over four on the season. Up against the Mariners, three and two-thirds, innings four runs allowed. Did have seven strikeouts, but he allowed two more home runs in this start, giving up some hard contact, and he's now allowed four plus earned runs in four of his last six starts.

Home runs have been a massive issue here for Joe Ryan. During this six-start stretch, 762 ERA, 1.7 whip, tons of strikeouts, 48 strikeouts over 28. Strikeout numbers have been nuts. Crazy. 13 homers. 13 home runs allowed in six starts.

Lots of hard contact. A crazy high fly ball rate, 57%. This is part of what we're worried about Andrew Abbott is that you give up this many fly balls and you give up hard contact. It's like, you know, you're kind of walking a fine line there. But this is what the bad looks like with Joe Ryan. Chris, your thoughts here?

And do we keep him in the line? He's at the Cardinals next week. It's a lot harder to justify keeping Joe Ryan in the lineup. And then part of what we talked about is why is, you know, you look at the, even the last two months, you've had the seven innings start and the nine inning start. As than that, it's maxed out at about six innings pretty much every time. Like, that's, I think he's a good pitcher.

And it's actually 15 strikeouts over the past eight starts, if you want to go back to because he had two, two strikeouts there. And I think it's like 64 strikeouts. in 45 innings or something like the the strikeout numbers are bonkers but that's also because he's throwing a lot he's facing a lot of batters per inning you know so the the numbers are inflated there I think he'll be better than this moving forward I don't think he's going to keep allowing where we up to three home runs per nine over the past like two months or something

like that I haven't think that's I haven't at 1.55 home runs per nine on the season that's tied for 10th among qualified starting pitchers. Yeah, that sounds about right. I think that's always going to be an issue for him. He is a fly ball pitcher that you're going to have to rely on soft contact, but sometimes you just have bad luck. Sometimes you just run into not pitching optimally and running into a little bit of bad variance and things are going to get really ugly for you.

So, yeah, I think what we're seeing is that Joe Ryan's not the ace he looked like at the start of the season. He's not nearly this bad either. but maybe it's more like he's a 360RA pitcher with very good whips and a lot of strikeouts, but a frustrating ride along the way. Joe Ryan is a tough pitcher to rank right now. I still have them inside of my top 20 because those strikeout numbers and the underlying numbers just in general are still really, really strong for Joe Ryan. But it's getting harder to justify.

Yeah, I mean, I had moved him up as high as 18 in my rotor. ranks and I clearly have to move him down. But like looking at those rankings, I've got Dylan Sees at 20 and Pablo Lopez at 21. Kind of the same issue for both. Like those three guys, it's kind of a spider man meme, which is I was going to make the joke that Joe Ryan and Bryce Miller were doing the Spider Man meme today because they were just throwing a bunch of really hard fastballs and giving up a bunch of ding-dongs today. But Ryan, Pablo and Dylan Sees are all kind of the same guy right now. Yeah, I was actually going to use Pavel Lopez exactly. And I think it makes even more sense because they're teammates on the twins. But it's just ERAs over four, great whips, tons of strikeouts. But, you know, they have about as much downside as any pitcher on a per star basis. I'm looking at the rankings. It's like, I want to keep moving him down. 22 feels too high. But like, Logan, Gilbert and George Kirby kind of have the same problem. Julio Reyes, I don't know what to make of him right now. I think I can move Tyler Glass now above them. But even that. you know, if you're talking about the next two months.

Get him up there, Chris. Well, it's just, you never know with Tyler Glass now. He's throwing like 80 innings in the past three seasons. I moved them up to SB 12. Maybe I'm crazy, but I did it. I think that's perfectly reasonable. I think he's clearly not part of the glob. Who else is not part of the glob is, like, I don't know if Joe Ryan's not part of that anymore.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know either. I think that's perfectly reasonable with Joe Ryan. Let's hit the news and notes, and then we'll get into some hitters that are heating up in the month of July. There were some rumors floating around that Aaron Judge was on track to return on Friday against the Orioles. But when Aaron Boone was asked about that, he just said he wouldn't rule it out. But he did not confirm it either.

So I think they're waiting until Thursday when you're listening to this to see how Aaron Judge has responded to playing these simulated games. And if he feels all right, then I think he probably is going to be active on Friday. But I think Thursday will be very telling here for Aaron Judge. Juan Soto was held out of the lineup Wednesday with an injury to his right middle finger, which has apparently bothered him since spring training. Never heard a peep about it. Soto will get an MRI on Thursday, and it might explain why he got off to such a slow start this season as well. Both Jordon Alvarez and Jose Altuvei returned to the Astros lineup on Wednesday. Altuvae was leading off. Chris, I thought it was interesting. Alvarez, fifth, batting fifth in the Astros lineup. I don't know what to make of that.

Kind of weird. Yeah, I don't know. I think what it does tell us, though, is Kyle Tucker is one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now. And I think Dusty Baker has just said, I'm not messing around anymore. I'm keeping Kyle Tucker up there. The one that doesn't make sense, Jeremy Pena. They were- He just really likes Jeremy Pena hitting second.

It's never made sense for Jeremy Pena's skill set and what we understand about optimal lineup, construction, but I don't know. That's what he does sometimes. They were facing a lefty here, Andrew Heaney on the mound against the Astros. I'm going to go out, this is just my prediction. I think when they face a right-handed pitcher,

I think we're going to see Kyle Tucker Betts second. I think we're going to see Altuve, Tucker, Breggman, Yoron Alvarez, and then Jose Bray. I think that's maybe their top five. But we'll see. Maybe I'm wrong. Cedric Mullins did some running on Wednesday. He's on the aisle with a right adductor strain

and remains without a timetable. Nathan Ovaldi is likely to start Sunday at the Padres. He was skipped earlier this week for rest purposes, aka his velocity has been down recently. Zach Eflin exited his start with left knee discomfort after the game. Kevin Cash said Eflin will undergo an MRI, and he's actually dealt with issues to both of his knees in the past,

which is kind of scary for Zach Eflin. He allowed five earned runs on Wednesday. That's the second time he's like, allowed five earned runs in his past three starts. Apparently, the MRI results on Yandy Diaz's left groin came back encouraging. He left Tuesday and was out of the lineup on Wednesday as well. Estuary Ruiz is slated to begin a rehab assignment at AAA this weekend. He's been out since early July with a right shoulder sublixation.

Mets manager Buckshaewalter announced that Starling Marte will not be activated when first eligible on Thursday. He is expecting a child very soon. So I think they're waiting for that to happen and then they'll activate Starling Marte. It sounds like an early August situation for Marte. Chris Sale will throw live batting practice Thursday. And if all goes well, he'll begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. Gunner Henderson was out of the lineup with lower back discomfort.

Jonah Heim left Wednesday due to left wrist sort is a little bit scary there. Yeah. Hopefully nothing serious, but yeah. I think when updating the rankings, I think Jonah Heim is the. top scoring catcher in head to head points leagues this year. That makes perfect sense. He's still on like 110 RBI pace, I'm pretty sure. It is crazy.

Yeah. Even more than Adley Ruchman who... Is like created in a lab for points leagues. He is so good for points leagues. He has 427 plate appearances as a catcher. Mostly catcher, you know he DH is here and there. M.J. Melendez and Dalton Varsher. who play outfield for their respective teams.

They're in the lineup every day. They are below 390 plate appearances. Adley Ruchman has 427. He is built different for Points League. He just gets so much volume. He is fantastic in that format. Well, he's great for every format, but especially in Points Leagues, that is Adley Ruchman.

Jorge Polanco is set to return this weekend, and it sounds like he'll play third base for the Twins in order to keep Edouar Julian in the lineup. Good news for him. Michael Waka threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session Tuesday, his first since landing on the IL back in early July. Hunter Green threw a side session Tuesday as part of a core stability program. It sounds like he could return sometime in August. Nick Lodolo, not expected to return to the Reds until September.

He threw a bullpen session Tuesday, his first since landing on the aisle back in May with a left tibia stress reaction. Last but not least, Jesse Winker. That's right, that Jesse Winker, he landed on the IL with back spasms. Let's take our final break, and when we return, we will talk about hitters who are heating up in July. I've got some waiver-wire moves as well. We'll talk about that right after this.

Welcome back. Let's talk about hitters heating up in July. Chris, I'm going to run through some names here. Wherever you want to jump in, feel free to do so. Julio Rodriguez, three-for-five with two doubles, and his 17th home run. So far in July, 2.95 batting average, four homers, five steals, and an 861 OPS. Good news for the second half.

Eloy Jimenez coming around just in time for us to buy in next year. Once again, Chris, two for five with a double and four RBI. Eloy in July batting 355 with three homers in a 942 OPS. If you remember during the All-Star break, we did some additional podcasts, having some fun. We're talking about second half preview, all these kind of crazy. crazy things and I called out Nate Lowe. He hasn't been as good this year. I don't know if it's going to happen.

He has been on fire ever since. Two for four with his 12th home run. He added two walks and three RBI on Wednesday. 12 games in the second half. Nate Lowe is betting 429 with three home runs and a 1276 OPS. Absolutely crushing the ball. Tons of line drives during that time. You want to go back to Eloy because I do,

he is doing better. And overall, his season numbers are fine, 286, 815 OPS. Like, I think you expect that you hope for a little better than that. But I do think this sort of highlights one of the issues with Elo Jimenez that, that I do think we need to keep in mind when he's, you know, even when he's healthy. Like, let's just do the last two seasons. He's played 154 games. I'm doing the math right there.

Yeah, 154 games are the last two seasons. Hitting right around 290, 19 home or 29 home. or 29 home runs, that's excellent. 100 RBI, exactly. That's pretty good. 73 runs, zero stolen bases. So when you're talking about a Roto League, especially, but even a points league where,

you know, he doesn't strike out an overwhelming amount, but he also doesn't really walk, 46 walks in 154 games, I think is what I said. It's just we view him as this really high upside player. And I think there is a path to some upside. You know, if he hits three, 10 instead of 290, then that's within the realm of possibility. But it's a fairly limited skill set.

He's a really bad base runner. He doesn't get on base very much. And so you're really looking at even in a best case scenario for Elo Jimenez. It's probably a three category contributor. And that's still useful. It's just something to keep in mind when we talk about the clear risk factors involved in a guy who has struggled to stay healthy every season of his career pretty much. And also when we talk about the upside, that it may not be as much upside as we hope for as an overall profile.

I think the upside, Chris, lies in those three categories, right? Yes. I've always thought, and maybe it's not fair to bring this player's name up. Nolan Aronado is clearly a better baseball player than Eloy Jimenez. But I always thought if Eloy had that breakout season, it would look like Nolan Aronado, right? It would be a 300 batting average, 30 to 35 home runs, a ton of RBI. But if you look at Aronado's best seasons, he didn't score that many runs either. So I always kind of-

Especially outside of course. Yeah, I always thought that that could be the upside play for Eloy, but he just, he doesn't stay healthy enough to make that happen. Yeah, Aronado is basically on like an 80 run pace right now, too. He scored 73 last year. The other, the natural cop I've always made was Jose O'Reu. Yeah. For Ely Jimenez.

Similar profile. I think that's fair. Solid bounce back season for Witt-Mariefeel, who went two-for-four with his seventh home run, added four RBI. he is having a huge July, 352 batting average, five homers, two steals with a 969 OPS. Whitmeryfield was very pedestrian before this. If you look at May and June, he was not all that great,

but he's turned it on in July. He was great in April, so he's kind of bookend some not-so-great months with really great months for Whitmeryfield. Nolan, Gorman, three-for-five with a double dong. He added three RBI, and he had that horrific June, Chris. but man, just great again in July. 282 batting average. Seven homers, 994 OPS.

I moved him back up the rankings. I don't know if I moved him up enough. You let me know. I put him at 15th at second base, 15th at third base. He's just behind Glaber Torres at second, just behind Gunner Henderson at third. Does that sound right for Nolan Gordon?

Yeah, so I've got him at 17 at second base, just behind in Roto, just behind Whitmerfield, who's, that's a tough one because that's so, team dependent, but I think I'd rather have Nolan Gorman, and it was one spot in my overall ranking, so that's an easy one. The other one, and I don't know where you have Luis Arayas, who I feel like it's just an incredibly difficult

player to rank because it's like, he is, he's kind of a one category guy for fantasy. Like, I actually don't know what the county stats are for him. I can't imagine they're particularly impressive. They're very bad. He's actually just much better in points leagues. That's what it comes down to him. He's 42 runs and 51 RBI is,

yeah, that's that's like a 150 run plus RBI pace. So it's really the best source of batting average in baseball and nothing else. I think you can make a decent case for Nolan Gorman ahead of him. Where it gets tougher is like Justin Turner and Ryan McMahon who are kind of similar players. But I think you make a case for him over those guys too. So yeah, I think you can move him up. I love Justin Turner.

Chris. What he's done this year, he ranks very highly in points leagues, Roto. It doesn't matter. He's chipped in some steals, the counting stats have been great. It's a good batting average. I think I have Turner top 12 at each of first base, second base, and third base. Just because of how good he's been, regardless of format. So shout out to Justin Turner.

He's getting it done. Luis Arise, by the way, his pace numbers this season. Imagine this. No way. Someone who bats 373, he's on pace for 67 run scored. And he hits at the top. He hits lead off. how is that possible

yeah it's it's wild 78 rbi it's a little better but gosh no it's really like it's not a knock on him it's his you know it's his surroundings you know below average or average in four categories

and then he's by far the best in baseball in one it's just a bizarre bizarre profile imagine if louisa rise let off for the rangers Chris he'd probably be on pace for 220 runs in RBI. Yeah, it's that, that run number is so low.

Insane, insane. It's just like Jorge Saler must hate him. Horace Salar just must have never hit a home run with Luis Surai's around on base because yeah, I don't know. That's, uh, that's interesting. Very interesting. Three waiver wire hitters that are heating up in July. James Outman, two for four with an RBI back to back big games for him.

So far this month hitting over 300 with three homers and three steals has a strikeout rate down to 27% in the month, which is certainly manageable for James Outman. Lars Neupar, three for four with his eighth home run. He's having his best month yet, maybe he's finally healthy. 2.98, with a 416 on base percentage, four homers, two steals, 916 OPS for Lars Neupar,

and Tristan Kosses, the guy is red hot, two for two, with two walks and his 15th home run. He's batting 365 with six homers and a 1284 OPS in the month. Chris, do you think any or all of these players are verging on must add, must roster, outman, Newpar, and Tristan Kossis? No, I think you can make a case that Kossis roster rate should be higher than 56%. And we talked about it the other day.

I'd love to see the Red Sox just like, let's let him play against lefties and see what he does. Because most of his played appearances against lefties came in April when he wasn't hitting anybody. So I would love to see him get that opportunity because I, I do think the breakout could be legitimate. He's incredibly talented. The quality of contact metrics are very good. So I hope we see that, but hope and expect are two very,

very different things. New Bar, it's just like, I noticed his season OPS is like 800. Like he's been disappointing, I guess, but it might just be that the profile is not super great for fantasy because it's so OBP heavy.

And that, you know, obviously is great for points. but because he doesn't always play every day. Maybe it holds him back. But one thing I will say there, though, is the Cardinals has said they're going to be selling. They have a glut in the outfield.

And it wouldn't surprise me if Taylor O'Neill and or Dylan Carlson were both moved, in which case, you know, that could clear up more consistent playing time for Newport. What is the opposite of heating up, Chris, in July? Do you have any guesses there? currently the way the temperatures are looking right now nothing going inside i guess i saw the water temperature and the keys got over a hundred degrees olly that's like being in a hot tub that is

crazy crazy stuff man i don't want to go to the beach there the opposite right now are those Tampa Bay Rays and three names in particular that have just cooled off in July. Wander Franco, Randy Rosa Rana, Josh Lowe. We've talked about, you know, Wander Franco here and there. Not much on Randy and Josh Lowe, Chris. Any actual concern with those three names? Not with Randy. We've doubted him enough that I just, that it's a slump. Wander Franco, you know, we talked about him. I think we still took him in the second round in that redrafing the first two rounds thing. that we did a couple weeks ago. I was the one who took him, I think.

I didn't have him in my top 24. I had him top 35-ish. And just, you know, we're reaching the point now where like April and May of this year looked like pretty significant outliers for his career. He's still, what, 22 or 23? So you don't want to say the book is written at all. He's clearly made leaps this season.

But now it's, now we need to see him bounce out of this and bounce back with a strong August in September. And we can't talk about him as a second round pick. But, you know, if this continues, then it's a little concerning. Then Josh Lowe, it's just he was never going to keep playing as well as he was early in the season. This is probably just a bad slump amidst regression. But yeah, not someone I think needs to be rostered in all leagues right now. Would you drop Josh Lowe for Lars Newbar in a points league?

In a points league, yeah, because I think Newbar is just better suited for that form. man anyway. Yeah, I think in categories, even with Lowe playing only against right-handed pitching, when he plays, he, you know, he's still got power and speed. So I think I would take him in a rhodo or categories type context, but in a points league, I'll take Lars Newpar there over Josh Lowe. Rapid Fire, Chris, we've got about five, 10 minutes left. What to do with these rookie pitchers? We mentioned Gavin Williams. Only lasted four innings against the Royals. That's back-to-back starts only throwing four innings. Bryce Miller served up four solo home runs at the Minnesota Twins.

This is kind of a weird game to evaluate because he gave up a lot of hard contact, but he did some interesting things. He had 15 swinging strikes. I know it was against the twins. They have by far the highest strikeout rate, I think ever, the way that they're going right now. I think it's the highest outside of the 2020 season.

But the slider velocity was way up. He threw his secondary pitches more than I've ever seen the slider and the change up. And I was watching that start. They look pretty good. I was pretty impressed by what I saw from Bryce Miller outside of the home runs. What do you think?

Are we holding here on Gavin Williams and Bryce Miller? Yeah, I know two of the home runs came off of the fastball. I wasn't sure the other two because they don't, the exit velocity charts on baseball savant don't show. They just show the velocity. He gave up 95.3 mile per hour average exit velocity on 18 balls in play in this one, which is back.

bad. I don't need to tell you that. Four whiffs on the changeup. I believe those are the first wifts. He's gotten on the change up all season. I wonder how many of them were off Joey Gallo. That's only partially a joke. No, it's funny you say that because there wasn't a bat. He threw Joey Gallo three straight changeups. And I think he swung and miss at all three. Yeah, like that sounds right. He had six of his swinging strikes on Joey Gallo. Looks like two of them were on the change-up. So there you go. Yeah, I don't know.

I think for his development, it's encouraging that he had the confidence to throw the slider and the change-up more. But the results are what the results are. And it's still a frustrating mix for Bryce Miller. But I do think there will be better times ahead. It's just, I think he's like all these Mariners pitchers, they're all still figuring out what the right approach is. And the Mariners seem to have a pretty, like, hands-off.

approach when it comes to their pitchers. They they tend to trust their guys to like go through what they think works. And that might lead to a bit more trial and error than you might prefer. But, you know, I think the results mostly speak for themselves there. So I'm not too concerned. It's just it's not the ACE outcome that it looked like it might be. Gavin Williams, I'm not dropping, but doesn't look like a must start guy yet. Waiverwire pitchers.

I've got four names here. Seth Lugo, seven innings, two runs, eight strikeouts for him. Ben Lively. Shouldn't be on the waiver wire anymore. I agree. I think he is the most under-rastered pitcher in fantasy right now. That is Seth Lugo. Ben Lively turns in a quality start at the Brewers.

Johann Oviedo, quality start at the Padres. Jose Cantana, quality start. The first one in a Mets uniform. He was at the Yankees. Chris, how do you rank this group? Lugo Lively, Oviedo, and Kintana. Lugo is in the glob. I don't think any of the other three are.

I think they're outside of even that range. I know Kentana's had decent results in a very small sample size so far. I don't really buy it. He does have a two-start at Casey at Baltimore next week. I don't hate that. So as a two-start pitcher in points leagues, especially, I think he's pretty useful. Oviedo and Lively, I don't really buy it. The peripherals for Lively are much worse than the overall numbers.

So I think he's going to, I think there's going to be some regression at some point. Well, it's kind of already happened. Three names. in the pitching leftovers category. You say Kikuchi. We've mentioned the term random number generator often recently. Well, that is you say Kikuchi.

At the Dodgers, six innings, one run, eight strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes. Actually, a really, really impressive performance. Carl Sordaun picks up his first win with the Yankees up against the Mets. Five and two-thirds, one run allowed, four strikeouts, had 11 swinging strikes. Lots of hard contact.

So kind of a mixed back. here on Carlos Rodan. And Spencer Strider, Ho-hum, turns in his ninth double-digit strikeout start of the season at the Red Sox. Chris, anything on these three?

Spencer Strider, it's not likely, but he might get to 300 strikeouts. We got two months left in the season. He's got about 10 starts left. Like 10 strikeouts per start. That's not impossible for Spencer Strider.

what I will say. He's a $199 right now. Rodan, I don't have much to, sorry, I don't have much to say about Kukuchi. I don't trust him. I don't know how you can trust him. He's so up and down his whole career. Underlying metrics don't back up what he's done so far. So I'd rather have Gavin Williams. I'd rather have Seth Lugo.

I'd rather just have Yuri Perez, who I think probably will make one more start in the minors and they get called up. He made his first start today. I only went like two and a third and two and two thirds, I think. Rodon, I think he's going to figure it out. He hasn't figured it out yet. Clearly, the results aren't there. But it kind of reminds me of Tyler Glass now's first couple of starts back.

Remember when he wasn't as great? And then it's kind of flipped, flipped overnight. Yeah. Someone pointed out today on Twitter that I say switch to flip a lot instead of flip they switch. I noticed you said it last night. I just caught myself, like, trying not to say that, and I almost said it. If somebody goes back and watches yesterday's podcast, I don't know when Chris said it,

but if you watch closely, I just start laughing in the background. I was going to bring it up, but then, I don't know, we got off on a tangent somewhere. So now I'm in my head about it. Last point on Carl Sordaun, the one thing that really stood out to me in a positive way, the slider was lights out. seven whiffs in this seven of his 11 swinging strikes and a 35% CSW there on Carlos Rodan. A few bullpen updates here for the Rockies. Justin Lawrence was unavailable.

Daniel Bard got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up four runs on four walks and a hit, took his second blown save and second loss of the season. For the Mariners, Paul Seawald was unavailable. Andres Munoz picked up his second save. For the Brewers, Devin Williams struck out two for his 26th save. The Pirates, David Bednar, allowed a run but picked up his 20th save.

For the Phillies, Craig Kimberl entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead. He was facing the heart of the Orioles lineup, three, four, and five. Shruck out two, and then Gregory Soto pitched a clean ninth inning for his second save.

I still think Kimbril's a closer. I just think they wanted to use him in the biggest leverage spot of the game. For the Yankees, Clayholm struck out one for his 14th save. For the Red Sox, Kenley Jansen also struck out one for his 22nd. And for the Cubs, Adbert Azzalai picked up his 11th save and is only 41% rostered. So if you do need a reliever in a points league, or you need saves in a daily categories league, whatever it might be,

Adbert Alesli, he is out there in lots of leagues. Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream, Chris. And on Thursday, I think we said Chase Silseth at the Tigers and Josiah great at the Mets. Yeah, I think Miles Michaelis against the Cubs, if he's in the streaming range in Broster rate, I'm not sure, but don't really have much interest in anyone else. We did gain another game because the Angels and Tigers got postponed on Wednesday. So Patrick Sandoval.

Sanneval, yeah, that's an okay one. Sandoval and Lorenzen, they were both bumped. Would you be okay with Lorenzen versus the Angels? I don't love it, but it's fine, yeah. Okay. On Friday, we're going old school style here because I didn't have enough time to write all these names out. So, Rees Olson at the Marlins.

I prefer Brax and Garrett on the other side, even though he's been pretty bad for a while, but I don't like either one of them very much. Oh, you know what? I lied. Chase Silsef is now pitching Friday at the Blue Jays. So he's not even pitching on Thursday. Do you like Chase Silseth at the Blue Jays? I would like him more against the Tigers.

I don't love the matchup against the Blue Jays. Jays. All right. Let's, who else do we have? Brady Singer versus the twins who strike out against everybody? Um, I don't, I don't want to start Brady Singer now. No, just say no. The answer is always no. I know he had a good outing in his last start. I think it was eight innings against the Yankees, but I don't, uh, I don't trust it. Yeah, but the Yankees stink. Uh, JP Sears is in Corse field. That's a no. No. Tommy Henry versus the Mariners. Blach. Probably not. Brandon Williamson at the Dodgers. No.

Cutter Crawford at the Giants, maybe. I don't hate that one, but I don't love it. But Friday, very bad. Streaming slate. Not looking forward to that one. Thursday with five games has more viable streamers than we do on Friday. So just to put that in perspective. We're going to wrap there for Chris.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.