Fantasy Baseball Today - Happy Birthday Trea Turner! Buy or Sell & Would You Rather? (7/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 1, 2021

Trea Turner just hit for a cycle on his birthday (2:44)! ... What's wrong with Aaron Nola (5:20)? Will he get back on track? What happened to Ohtani the pitcher? ... The Brewers and Braves offenses went wild (11:30)! ... News and notes (22:00)! Juan Soto left early, Jose Urquidy went to the IL, Chris Sale looked really good, and more. ... Buy or sell (27:57)! Is Goldschmidt a top-12 first baseman? Is Max Fried better than Kyle Hendricks? ... Would you rather (40:34)! Bryce Harper or Nick Castellanos? Jon Gray or Kolby Allard as a two-start pitcher next week? ... Waiver wire options (47:23). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens, and streamers (52:45). What is going on with Aroldis Chapman!? ... 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.  CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55" TV, portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to cbssports.com/homerun to enter. 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. I drive. Center field. What is magnificent? 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, Chris, and Adam. You thought there was a lot of offense yesterday? Well, how about this? Trey Turner hit for his third cycle of his career. On his birthday, no less, we had 20, runs scored in a game by the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewer scored 15 unanswered runs after going down seven zip in the first inning. Baseball.

Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Thursday, July 1st. We're here. We made it. Frank Stamphle joined by Chris Towers. It was a wild and wacky end to a strong offensive June. And I'll have finalized stats for the month on tomorrow's podcast. But it was a crazy one, Chris. Yeah, I mean, what we've seen so far in June is the highest scoring month of the season out of the three so far. April saw 4.25 runs per game per team. May was 4.41. And then June was 4.64. Now, to put that in context, April of 2019 was 4.63 runs per game and June of 2019 was 4.97. So still a ways off from,

that, but, you know, between the weather warming up and I think pitchers being a little less effective overall, we definitely have seen more offense, although the pitching numbers haven't really changed that much since the whatever we're calling it, the crackdown, the great crackdown. The crackdown. Sarah's had a piece on the athletic, and I did something a little earlier this week looking at some of the trends. And so far, at least, the impact seems pretty minimal on a population level. Yeah, I think what's happening there, Chris, is that just the really bad pitchers have gone back to being really bad, right? So we had all these pitchers like overperforming earlier on in the season.

It seemed like we had maybe 50 or 60 starting pitchers that were not elite, but like viable starting pitchers. I don't know that we can say that anymore. But I think a lot of those pitchers that were awesome early on in the season are kind of falling by the wayside. and we're starting to see, you know, the elite pitchers that are, I guess, not dealing with all the sticky stuff. Because those guys have been okay. But everyone else is like those elite pitchers are kind of just doing their thing. One of them is not Aranoa. We'll talk about him in just a little bit.

But let's just start with Trey Turner, who is like way better than, oh my goodness gracious. You know, oh, my goodness gracious is not worthy of Trey Turner. What he did. He hit for his third cycle of his career on his 28th birthday. And speaking of birthdays, Chris, it's your birthday this weekend. and you're going away, so we won't be near each other. I won't be at your birthday party, unfortunately. I don't know if you're having one.

But happy birthday, bud. Have you ever hit for a cycle on your birthday? I have never hit for a cycle on my birthday or anyone's birthday. I did go two for three at my most recent softball game. So, you know, that's kind of like hitting for the cycle. I thought we were going to play softball together, but what happened, Chris? I asked you a few times if you wanted to play, and you said no. I'm pretty sure I said, yeah.

I'm going to sign up for another one later on. Let me know, man. I'm down to play. All right, I got to go. I'll see you. We'll figure it out. Anyway, trade teringer hits for the third cycle of his career. And not only did he accomplish that fee, but he also added two more steals.

So normally, that would be a sock and two shoes, but considering he also had a cycle. I don't know what, what is that? Like, a whole new outfit? Is that a new wardrobe? It's got to be something like that. I think the kids call it a fit. A fit. I think that's what we're going with.

So if you ever hit for a cycle and steal two bases, it's a fit. That's what we're going with from now on. Trey Turner is batting 318 this year with 14 homers and 18 steals. That is a 28 homer, 36 steel pace. And he's also tied for the National League lead with 100 hits. He did jam his middle finger, but he said after the game that he felt all right. He's day to day as of now. But I would argue, Chris, that Trey Turner is the fifth most valuable hitter in fantasy

behind Ronald de Cunia, Fernando Tatez, Vladimir Guerrero, and Shohei Otani. And honestly, maybe in Roto, he's more valuable than Vlad, just because of the steals. Yeah, I have him a little lower than that in points. And then in Roto, I do think he's in that range. I might have DeGrom ahead of him. Yeah, I have DeGrom ahead of him. but he is fifth for me actually, but that is out in Roto.

I don't have Vlad quite that high. We're going to be pre-recording a podcast that will be released on Monday, July 5th, and we're going to basically redraft the first two rounds for the rest of the season. I know that was an article that Scott just put out, so it's going to be interesting to see where Trey Turner falls on that. But the guy is awesome. I don't really know that we need to add anything more than that. Let's get into the rest of Wednesday's action.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Chris just cut out. So we're going to wait for him to come back. But in the meantime, I will bring up Aaron Nola, and there is the great Chrissy Pooh. And people sending in tweets and emails and worried about him. And rightfully so. I mean, we talk about him basically after every one of his clunkers.

It looked like maybe he was back on track after his last start, where he had 12 strikeouts. But up against him Marlins on Wednesday, four and two thirds, nine hits, seven runs, 11 strikeouts, which was weird because he only had 10 swinging strikes. and I didn't watch the entire start. I watched like the second half of it, but apparently early on the umpire was like

really helping out. It was not a good strike zone and very favorable for Aranola. Although hey, that's part of being a good pitcher. Yeah. If the um's going to give you the borderline calls and you've got command like Aranola does, that's an advantage you can take advantage of.

It's an advantageous position to be in for a starting pitcher. This is just a, this was a really weird. start though. It really was. He only gave up four hard hit balls. Yep. One of them was a home run. He gave up a 95 mile per hour home run and then actually only two home runs. He gave up two solo homers, yeah. Yeah, four hard hit balls, two solo homers and somehow gave up seven runs, didn't walk anyone. Like that's such a weird out. That's such a weird start. Seven runs in less than five innings, two solo home runs, no walks. How does that happen? Well, you know, he had a three singles

allowed with an exit velocity below 70 miles per hour. I'm pretty sure they all came in his final ending of work too, because I was watching it and it was just bloop after bloop. He had a 600 babbip in this start on only four hard hit balls. His ex-fip actually went down after the start. 3.27 is the ex-fip on the season for Arandola. So a lot of people are asking, like what's wrong with Aranola, and we kind of keep saying the same thing. I think what I've seen from in this year, the command and the control,

I think, both have been a little bit shaky at times. It's not really reflected in the walks, but if you watch when he misses inside the zone, those are games where he gets hit hard and he gives up home runs. So I think that is what's happened to him at times this year. His change-up has not been nearly as good as it was last season. That's part of the reason why I had Aranola as my SP4,

coming into the season because that change-up unlocked everything last year. Aronola does not have a good fastball. It's mediocre at best. And that change-up helped everything else play up last year. And I was hoping that that would carry over.

It hasn't happened. So it's been like a much more hitable pitch. In general, I would still bank on Aranola being a sub-3.5 ERA pitcher rest of season. And I said that before, but I'm going to stick with

what the numbers are saying here, Chris. I'm overall still not that worried on Aranoa, and I would be looking to buy him. I agree with that, and especially after this start, which was such a strange start, like we said earlier. I think this is actually an opportunity to buy it, like you said. All right. Oh, my goodness, gracious for you from Wednesday. Chris, who you got? Let's talk about Shohei Otani. I don't know how much there is to take away from it, but he was just dreadful seven earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, four walks,

including each of the first three batters, I'm pretty sure. watching the start, I was actually very excited. I was like told my wife like, hey, we're going to sit down and watch some baseball tonight because usually when I watch baseball, it's by myself and she'll watch something else. But I was like, we're going to watch this together because this guy is awesome. And she was very underwhelmed by this historically great player. And watching the start, I thought his velocity was down a little bit. You know, it seemed like it was a lot of 93.

94, but his velocity was actually up today. He averaged 96.1 with the fastball. Obviously, it's only one inning and 41 pitches. But that wasn't the issue. He just did not have command of any of his pitches. You know, even the splitter, he got a couple whiffs with it. I think they were on back-to-back pitches to Rugnet O'Dore, and that was it. He just didn't have a feel for his pitches.

I think he hit someone as well. It was just, I don't know if it was. the mystique of Yankee Stadium getting to him or something like that. You know, maybe he got a little too pumped up in his first time pitching at Yankee Stadium. I don't know. But it's worth mentioning how bad he was, worth mentioning that there are still times, you know, his command was iffy earlier in the season. There are apparently still times when that can get away from him.

So yeah, that's why he's a much more valuable player as a hitter than a pitcher. The hitting hasn't slumped. Yeah, and if you have him in a league where he's only one player, you could probably fast forward because you're never going to use him as a starting pitcher. It's just, I have him in a few leagues like that. I think I've only used him as a pitcher once, and that's because there was three games in the National League on the schedule for that week, and he was pitching against the Diamondbacks or something,

so it was like a really good matchup. But outside of that, I've used him as a hitter all season long, and I think we were kind of spoiled by this last two-month stretch where he looked awesome as a starting pitcher, We're really pitching at an elite level as an ace, and we kind of are reminded here about what the downside could be for Shohei Otani. Four walks and a hit by pitch, as you mentioned, Chris, did not escape the first inning there.

I think he's still a top 40-ish borderline starting pitcher rest of season. But those are only for leagues where if he's a different player, I know in Yahoo, they have him pitcher eligible. I think in ESPN you might get points for both as just one player, which is actually pretty awesome. So I've got to talk to someone. on the programming side of things in CBS because I've been pining for that to happen.

Let's just talk about a whole bunch of situations real quick. Like just the entire day of oh my goodness gracious performances because I mentioned what the Brewers did. They were down 7 Zip in the first inning. The Cubs had a 95% win probability going into the bottom of the first inning. The Brewers scored 15 unanswered runs. So let's take a look at how they did that damage.

Luis Arias, 4 for 5 with a double dong, and he ends his June batting 284 with five homers, a steel, an 875 OPS, solid plate discipline on the year, 10% walk rate, 23% strikeout rate, a little bit above league average. He's 39% rostered Luis Arias, second base, third base, shortstop eligibility, seven games next week.

Chris, I know for a while that you have wanted Luis Arias to be a thing. it feels like he's kind of figuring it out. I'm not expecting him to be like a 875 OPS player rest of season, but can he be, I don't know, high 700s, maybe an 800 OPS kind of bad? Maybe I'm kind of interested with this position eligibility. It's funny. His average X velocity in the month of June

was actually his lowest of the season at 85.6 miles per hour. All right, so forget everything I just said now. His expected Woba was only 302 in the month. I guess this might not be including. This probably isn't including today where presumably he did have a couple of hard hit balls if he hit two home runs.

But I do think there is definitely the fact that he is eligible at so many positions. He had three hard hit balls today. So, you know, that's a good sign. The fact that he is a pretty good contact hitter, the fact that he's playing in Miller Park, which is a great place to him, hit, you know, his, his home runs have been pretty much all to the pull side, uh, with the exception

of one of them. And so, you know, if you're going to have midling power, hitting a lot of balls to the pull side is one way to get the most out of it. Maybe that's, you know, what he's doing. His launch angle is up to 13.9 degrees on average. It's the highest it's been in any of his seasons so far. Um, hard hit rate is 39%. That's actually, you know, it's not elite, but it's, it's close to average. So I think there is a chance he can be a starting caliber fantasy player, given that usage, especially in a Roto League. But even in a points league,

he might be a nice player to have a round just to fill in some gaps for you. Yeah, I mean, if you play in a league that uses a Roto-style lineup, middle infielder, corner infielder, just something that deep, regardless of format, I think he's someone you want to have your, on your roster, especially in a daily lineup league where he can fill in all these different positions. Again, that is Luis Arias.

The other one, Willie Adamas, who we have talked a lot about recently, but that roster rate is still too low. 47% rostered is Willie Adamas. He hit a grand slam, and in 37 games with the Brewers, he's now batting 282 with seven homers and 28 RBI. That is a 28 home run, 113 RBI pace, over 150 games.

And he also has a 91 mile per hour. exit velocity and a 30% line drive rate since he has joined the brewers. A lot to like here, Chris. I actually told someone on Twitter that I would drop, if I play in a shallower league and I just need someone to start, I would drop Glaber Torres and Ehuehineos Juarez for William Svarez. I think that's fair. I was actually on the NBC Sports Edge podcast with Chris Crawford earlier today.

And I think I said the same thing about Glaber for Willie Adamas. So yeah, I would do that. Another name here to mention. Jace Peterson, just super deep leagues. He went two for four with three RBI in that game. He started four straight games. He has seven hits with five RBI and one steal during next stretch. Exactly zero percent rostered on CBS.

So, Anna only leagues the deepest of formats. Jace Peterson getting some run here. There's some speed there. Yes. And now for the bad. Got to take the go with the bad. Christian Yelich, in a game where they scored 15 runs, Christian Yelich went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts.

So we talked him up yesterday, and then he does this. Prospect Aaron Ashby, who we mentioned was being promoted. He did not escape the first inning, and he was bad. But there was also like a rough error behind him, which extended the ending. But yeah, I think it was like 0.2, 7 runs. Four of those were earned. For Aaron Ashby, now on to the Braves, who had 20 runs on 20 hits. Each of Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, and Austin Riley had at least three hits in this game.

And then Ronald de Cunia hit his 22nd home run of the six. season. All right. Ho-Hum. He's awesome. Ozzy Albies, Chris. Five for six, two dingers, a steel. That's two socks and a shoe. He added seven RBI and four runs scored in this game. He's now up to 15 homers and 11 steals. Since May 1st, Ozzy Albies has been the real deal, everything that you wanted from him and then some. Yeah, the thing I'm trying to figure out, um, do you know by by chance what what handedness the pitchers

that he hit his home runs off today were? I know one of them was a position player I think it was off of Albert Almora so he's a righty

yes so Scott and I were actually talking about this the other day how Ozzy Alby just has like these weird splits where he's actually

great as a right handed batter against left-handed pitching and just not nearly as good as a left-handed batter against right-handed pitching

but yes one of them was against Albert Almora, the other one was... Oh, man. Japucky? Japuki? Z-A-P-U-C-K-I.

That gentleman. So we hit a home ride. I have no idea how to pronounce that. But yeah, he has a 757 O-PS against Ritees for his career. 9-49 against lefties for his career. So that's a very dramatic split. This guy throws a left-tie. Last season, he actually didn't hit lefties at all.

Sorry, what was that, Frank? This guy throws lefty. Jap-P-E. Sounds like a hockey name. And he's continued to hit lefties better this season. But 780 OPS against Ritey's, that is better than we've seen from him in the past. And it looks like his strikeout rates a little under 20%. He's walking a decent amount.

And that 780 OPS comes with a 257 Babbap. So, you know, maybe that is a place that he's improving. And if that's the case, then, you know, Ozia Albies could be taking a step forward. but I think that's going to be the key. If he could be an 800 OPS bad against Ritey's, that would, you know, that would open up a lot for him. Man, looks like I'd just seen a ghost, but something very similar to just seeing a ghost.

I will update you on that in just a second. But Freddie Freeman, along with Ozzy Elbe's, yeah, just to put a ball on it, he's on pace for 30 homers, over 20 steals. I always kind of thought he had this upside. I don't know if he's going to keep up this pace because he's just been so awesome. the month of June. But yes, this is the, I think the best version of Ozzy Albies that we've seen. Hopefully, he can continue to improve against right-handed pitchers. Freddie Freeman went three for three

with four runs. He has 13 hits over his last seven games. So finally, some of that bad, badbit block is being reversed. Austin Riley, who has really cooled off, had three singles and three RBI. And one thing to add about Freddie Freeman is his, his pull rate early on was very high. low. It's up to 44% in the month of June, or it finished the month of June. I guess at at least 44%. We'll see what it is after today. But, you know, that's a, that's a key for him because in 2019, it was 40% in 2020. It was 37% this year overall. It's down to 34. It was, you know, below 32% before the month of June. So it's easier to hit for power, obviously when you hit it to the pull side. I think that's generally accepted. But in his case, because he hits so many line drives,

it also helps him overcome any deficiencies when it comes to the shift. Because he can, if you hit a line drive, you can still hit it over the shift. Yes. So, I mean, look,

we've been talking about him as a by low player all season long. I'm kind of like out of it right now because I'm trying to find out what is going on with a role of this Chapman. He just allowed his first grand slam of his career. So he is like, broken right now. As great as he was in the first two months of the season,

in June, I don't know if it's like a sticky substance situation, or I guess it wouldn't surprise me because obviously his teammate Garrett Cole was using something, but like all of the regression is hitting A Rolla's Chapman at once, and the walks are way up.

Again, just gave up a grand slam to Jared Walsh. Stupid me the other day saying Jared Walsh was like a sell high candidate. But yeah, A Rolda Shatman. They just blew a four. run lead in the top of the ninth inning. That game is still going because there was a rain delay. There's been like a bunch of rain throughout the country today. So whatever happens in this game,

there were four games delayed by rain at one point today. Yeah, it was, it was brutal. But whatever happens in this game, we'll keep you up to you. Dylan Bundy pitched today. Dylan Bundy had to pitch in relief because Chohei Otani didn't make it out of the first inning, of course, and just completely messes everything up because at that point, it becomes a national league game for the Los Angeles Angels there. So, yeah, just a really weird. game all around for the Angels and Yankees. Before we hit news and notes, just want to remind everyone that if you're watching us

live on YouTube, you can subscribe, and we would appreciate that. If you are not watching us live, you should still subscribe. Anyway, YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. Hit that big red subscribe button, the notification bell. You get notified every time we go live or our video drops. So you can also have access to our fantasy baseball today in five podcasts, which we do in video form as well. And speaking of which, fantasy baseball today

and five. If you haven't, make sure to download and follow. Wherever you find this podcast, Apple, Stitcher, Spotify. It's a lot of what we talk about on this podcast, just a lot quicker in only five minutes. So it's like a SparkNotes version of this podcast. The news and notes from

Wednesday after going three for five with two steals. Juan Soto left Wednesday's game due to a cramp in his left leg. He has not been hitting for power recently, but did have 922 OPS in June. So it was like kind of a mixed bag. A lot of that power came earlier on in the month,

but he's still hitting for a high batting average. So it's been a nice turnaround so far for Juan Soto. Jose Ramirez was out of the lineup for game two of Cleveland's double header. After fouling a ball off of his face in game one, it was one of the weirdest things that I've seen because he didn't, it's not like the ball hit the ground and then like popped back up and hit him in the face. The ball just hit off of Jose Ramirez's bat.

He swung at a pitch that was like super inside. and it just popped right up into his cheek. Never seen it before. It was very interesting. Hopefully he's all right. Should be. Shane Bieber isn't expected to resume throwing for a week or two. He remains without a timetable when it comes to that strained shoulder.

Blake Snell was placed on the aisle with a non-COVID illness. He was scratched from Tuesday start because of it. Jose Orkitti was placed on the aisle with right shoulder discomfort. The Astros could stick with a five-man rotation or add Christian Javier to the mix. I saw that Javier was pitching. in relief once again on Wednesday, but he is an option if they want to go back to that six-man rotation.

Chris Sale looked, quote, really good while throwing a live batting practice session on Wednesday. He's scheduled to throw another live batting practice next week in Florida before the Red Sox send him out on a rehab assignment. Chris Sale will likely make four or five rehab outings before returning, which maybe that means we've seen by the end of July.

I think early on August is probably more realistic. Sale is up to 81% rostered. should that be 100%. No, because there's probably, you know, roughly 15% of leagues that have really limited IL spots. And if you, you know, if you're in a league where you only have like two or three aisle spots, it's really hard to justify hanging on to a guy like this. I'm in one league with only three IL spots.

And my bench is basically injured players in your mean Mercedes right now. I have been able to hang on to Lehazos Luzardo so far, but I think I'm going to have to drop him because it's Zach Allen and Jeremy Mercedes are the only players who have active on my bench right now. If you're in a situation like that, it's obviously much harder to justify Stash and Chris Sale. But, I mean, he could come back

for the last two months of the season, make 11 starts and strike out 100 batters. you know, that that's the kind of upside we're talking about here. You know, last time we saw him, he wasn't quite as good as we're used to, but he still, I think, was leading baseball in strikeouts when he went down. So, yeah, Chris Sale, if you can spare the roster space, absolutely Adam. Yeah, I saw in that same report that he was averaging 94 to 95 miles per hour on his fastball. So that's way up from the last time we saw Chris Sale.

And you know what's funny? Actually, Chris, I go back and listen to a lot of the. 2019 podcast that you did with Adam Azer, just to get an idea of how he did things. And a lot of your conversations were about Chris Sale, because he was just a very... Scott and I disagreed big time on Chris Sale. He was on the Chris Saleus fine bandwagon, and I was very much on the, Chris Sale is giving up way too much hard contact. And, you know, we were both kind of wrong, I guess. Yeah. Mitch Garber has resumed baseball activities, but is not expected back before the All-Star break. Michael Kopeck was reinstated and is expected to work out of the White Sox bullpen again. He's 64% rostered for those

who need ratios and strikeouts in categories leagues. If you play in a points league, I just don't see how Michael Kopeck is going to have much value unless he works his way back into the rotation. Becomes the closer or gets in the rotation. That's the only way. Yeah, it's going to take an injury for that to happen, I think. Mark Hanna doesn't have any structural damage in his left hip, but has received PRP injections to both. He doesn't have a clear timeline yet. He was awesome when he played this year. Patrick Wisdom is managing right neck tightness

and a left eye contusion after he collided with Tyrone Taylor at first base. He is day-to-day. David Peterson for the Mets left Wednesday start with right side soreness. Tony Santion was optioned to AAA by the Reds. He's expected to rejoin the team later on in the season to work out of the bullpen.

Harrison Bader will be activated Thursday in Colorado. He's 11% rostered. and had four homers and three steals in 22 games earlier in the season. So some power, some speed if you play in a deeper Categories League, again, the name there, Harrison Bader. Cole Calhoun was removed from his rehab appearance Tuesday due to a possible setback with his left hamstring and some prospect updates from Tuesday's action. I haven't looked at Wednesdays yet.

But Jared Kellnick went three for five with a home run. Jaron Duran had a double dung. Not sure what else he needs to do for the Red Sox to call him up. A pair of 19-year-olds in Marco Luciano and with the Giants and Nelvi Marte, with the Seattle Mariners, each hit a pair of home runs at A-ball. And Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said that Nate Pearson is away from the team this week to receive another medical opinion on his injured right groin. Team president, Mark Shapiro, made a similar announcement last week,

which makes at least five medical opinions on Nate Pearson's groin injuries. So don't know how many doctors. You need to tell you the same thing, I guess, but apparently there's some kind of like underlying issue, and it's just a really rough go. If you have Nate Pearson and Keeper or Dynasty Leagues, I have them in the Scott White Dynasty League, and I would be lying if I said that I felt optimistic

about Nate Pearson at this point in his career. Let's do a little buy or sell here, Chris, involving some of the other top standouts from Wednesday. And let's start with Paul Gulchmidt, who went three for five with two doubles on Wednesday, and in the month of June, he was much better. 281 batting average,

five homers in 839 OPS, and he has a career high exit velocity and hard hit rate. So it's kind of weird that he has slumped as much as he has this season. His 525 expected slug, Paul Goldschmidt, his highest since 2018. He's currently slugging 415.

So he is underperforming that by over 100 points. Is Paul Goldschmidt a top 12 first basement rest of season? First base is not great. It's possible. I'm trying to see where I have him ranked. I would imagine it's pretty close to that. Yeah. Yeah, he's a top 12 first baseman.

Yeah. You're confident in that because his ranking's kind of all over the place for us. Scott has him down at, I think, 21st at the position. I think it's just based a lot on what he's done this year. I have him 11th. I had us some names like Uly Gurriel, Luke Voight. so it's close. If Uyghuril keeps up what he's been doing

and Luke Voight kind of gets back to the player or close to the player he was last year, then I could probably push Goldschmidt out there. But you're saying you're sticking with him, top 12s. Yep. Yeah, I buy it. All right, Paul Goldschmidt averaging 2.6 fantasy points per game this year, but hopefully a strong June can carry over.

By herself, you can drop Robbie Grossman for Akeel Badu in a points league. Akele Badu had three more hits, and he ends June with. a 14% walk rate and a 17% strikeout rate. Seems like he sacrificed some power for contact, which isn't a terrible thing. He's still running quite a bit, too, Akele Badoo. He's 42% rostered, has seven road games next week.

Robbie Grossman is eight for his last 58, and now has a sub-700 OPS in two of the first three months of the season. He's still 65% rostered, Chris. By or sell, you can drop Grossman for Akele Badoo. I think that's okay, But, you know, the thing that holds Badoo back in a points league is just that he's not an everyday player. You know, I think he's not starting against most lefties.

And so I'm buying the Robbie Grossman part of this, dropping him. Butu, I think he's much more of a Roto player at this point. I see why you say that because he steals. But, like, his plate discipline is so great for points leagues. But you're right. I mean, he doesn't play every day. It's just the playing time for me. So I do think you could drop Robby.

Grossman, maybe not in deeper leagues, but, and he's been, like, he had a great May outside of that. He's been pretty mediocre. So if you were looking for, if there's an outfielder available that you're pretty interested in, like, would you do it for Hazu Sanchez, Chris? Hazer Sanchez had a pretty good game on Wednesday. He went two for five with a double, two RBI. He had two batted balls over 104 miles per hour. Would you drop Grossman for Hazu Sanchez?

That's fine. Yeah, I mean, again, Sanchez, I'm not sure he's going to be a must-start guy in a points league, but it's mostly about my lack of enthusiasm for Grossman at this point. All right. Buy or sell. Max Fried is better than Kyle Hendricks rest of season. Max Fried returned on Wednesday against the Mets. Five innings, two runs, two walks, seven strikeouts. He had 13 swinging strikes on 74 pitches with the most balanced arsenal that I've seen. seen from him. He threw four different pitches between 18% and 32% of the time. Velocity, spin rates all looked fine from his first start back. So by yourself, Chris, Max Fried is better than Kyle Hendricks rest of season. I think it's pretty close. I don't have a super strong opinion about it the other way, but I'll lean towards Hendricks. Hendrix has been

awesome since the start of May. You know, remember how bad he was early on, had three walks in two of his first three starts gave a, had a 754 ERA in the month of May or in the month of April. 11 starts since the start of May. He has a 283 ERA. He's got a

1.1 whip. He's been Kyle Hendricks since a bad start. So I'll stick with Kyle Hendricks. Yeah, me too. They're very similar in that. They do a really good job of inducing soft contacts.

Max for you to get a few more strikeouts, but he also walks more. So it's kind of like, all right, there's one pro, there's one con there for Max Fried. And I was thinking about it earlier, the way that I view Max Free is kind of similar to Jose Berrios. Now, I think Berrios is a little bit more valuable because he goes deeper into his starts, but I kind of just think they are what they are. Like, Burrios and Freed, they're not really ever going to get better. I don't know that they're going to get worse, unless obviously, like, as they get older, of course they will. But they're just solid SP3s. Like, in my mind, it's, that's, that's,

what Jose Burrios and Max Fried are at this point. And I don't think anything's really going to change it. I think they're fine. It's just they don't have a ton of upside. Yeah, the one thing this season and really the last two seasons is Fried just hasn't been a strikeout pitcher. He's been about average. And this season, the results on contact have not been nearly as good as they were last

season. Last season, he was one of the best in baseball at limiting hard contact. This season, you know, the average exit velocity against is very good. But the expected Wobon contact has risen from 277. to 383. And so, you know, I'm not exactly sure what's up with that. The hard hit rate is up a little bit, but, you know, it could just be, he's kind of living on the margins when it comes to that because he doesn't get many strikeouts. But, you know, I trust Kyle Hendrick's ability to limit hard contact more than frets.

Yeah, I think that's fair. Trent Grisham had a double dong on Wednesday, including a grand slam off of a lefty. They actually called this game in the sixth inning because of rain. It was one of those games that we were talking about. What I noticed with Trent Grisham kind of weird, he has not stole a base since returning from the IL. He was on the IL with a heel bruise, so that could be the reason why.

Chris, By herself, Trank Grisham is a top 15 outfielder rest of season. I don't, I think that one's really close, but there are some really good signs. And in particular, he's hitting 244 with an 893 OPS against lefties this season. and that includes just a 21.8% strikeout rate. That is huge for Tret Grisham. And if he can keep that up,

yeah, he's going to be a top 15 outfield a rest of the season. Yeah, I'm going to sell it. I think I'll sell it for now. And I like Grisham quite a bit coming into the season. I know that you were actually skeptical on him coming into the year, but his lineup context has changed a little bit. He's not leading off anymore.

That's Tommy Fam. He's been moved down, but he's batting fifth in the lineup quite consistently there for the Padres. So the run total goes down. the RBI total goes up. Maybe that's also a reason why he's not running as much as before. But I think as he gets healthier,

hopefully as the heel gets healthier, the Padres, they just run so much as a team that I have to imagine the steals are going to bounce back for Trenkisham. So I'll sell top 15 for now. I think he's just outside of that. I have him like 18th or 19th in my rankings,

but as he gets healthier, I think he can jump back inside that top 15. Chris, DJ LaMayhew, had a double, a walk, and three RBI on Wednesday and he hit 294 with four home runs in June. By herself, D.J. LeMayhew is almost back. He's not back, but he's almost back.

Yeah, it depends on what we mean by back. Even with that in the month of June, he had a 788 OPS. That's a far cry from what we saw from him, both in 2019 and 2020. So I still think he is a diminished version of the player he was when he, you know, made the leap to fantasy. start him over the last couple of seasons, but you know, he's better than he was in the first couple of months, for sure. Do you think he's a buy low candidate? Would you actually try and acquire him

yourself? Depends what I can get. You know, if someone still views him as like a top 50 player, then I don't think I would try to get him. But, you know, if whoever has him on their team is frustrated enough and you can buy low, you know, truly low, then yeah, I would try to do that. Because I think he will be a great source of batting average, with good counting stats, but I think the power issues are going to remain.

Somebody tweeted at me earlier, and they asked about a trade offer that they received, and they were giving up Tyler Malley and Gio Urchella for DJ LaMayhew and Martine Perez. And they thought it was a slam dunk. And I was like, eh, I would want a better second piece than Martine Perez. I thought Tyler Malley straight up for Lamehue was a fair trade.

Yeah, yeah, I guess. You know, Urchella, it's just a, what's his injury right now? He's been, like, fighting through something, like a shin or a calf. Yeah, I think it's a shin. Because I also, you know, Arcella is someone who I think is better than he's played so far. He had a really good June, actually. Yeah, so I'm fine with Urchella as either middle infield or corner infield in a 12-team Roto. So, you know, Martine Perez, I don't.

really have much interest in it all in a standard league. So I definitely think it's a little unbalanced. Yeah. All right. Good. Thanks, Chris. He made me feel better about that one. Yosmani and Grendal had a double dong on Wednesday. And talk about June. A lot of hitters bouncing back in June. Yosmani Grandal was one of them. He hit 260 with eight home runs in the month of June. That sounds a lot like Yosmani Granda. So Chris, by yourself, Yasmani Grendal is back to being a top five catcher in fantasy. Yeah. Yeah. Especially in a points league. because he plays so much, he gets on base so much. I mean, 59 walks.

That is, does he still lead baseball walks? He's walked in a quarter of his played appearances. That's amazing. His walk rate in May in particular, I think, was almost 30%, Chris. Something had to be going on where he couldn't swing the bat or something, where he was just walking, because I've never seen that for an entire month. A 30% walk rate? That's insane.

I'm sure Barry Bond's had some months. like that. Well, that's true, but I wasn't playing fantasy. Not very Bond's category. Yeah, there's probably not too many of those. I believe he had an infield hit yesterday. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, he has one infield hit on the season, which is amazing. He is always going to be a very low batting average player, but 180 is still too low. I think he's someone who can be, you know, if he hits 2.30, he's definitely a top five catcher. And I think he will moving forward. Again, he hit 260 in June. I'm not expecting that, but the usual, right?

Like you said, 2.30, 240. That's kind of what you expect out of Yasmani Grandal. And he's actually crushing the ball this year. When he puts it in play, 93 mile per hour, average exit velocity. That is in the 95th percentile in all of baseball. The infield hit that you mentioned, Chris, spectacular. Because Yasmani Grandal, one of the slowest hitters in baseball, a 6% sprint speed. So that is truly a remarkable feat.

We're going to take a quick break. but when we return, some would you rather's next on fantasy baseball today. So let's start with Bryce Harper versus Nick Castellanos rest of season. Harper had a double dong on Wednesday and in 20 games since returning from the IL. He's batting 282, 6 homers, 10% walk rate, 20% strikeout rate. Seems like Bryce Harper is getting healthier-ish. Nick Castianos also hit his 16th home run of the season. And he's batting 3.46 on the year.

So Chris, who would you rather have rest of season? Bryce Harper or Nick Castianos? It's Harper for me, though. The question is, you know, whether he's going to, you know, get back to running after all the injuries that he's dealt with. He did have three stolen bases in the month of June. That's a good sign. So, you know, that's like a 25-holme steel pace. That's basically what he's been on.

He was on like, so basically since coming back from the injury, he's on like a 40-homer, 25-steel pace. RBI haven't been there. Walk rate's been a little low. but I think you add it all up and Harper is the better overall player. All right. As of now, both Scott and I have Nick Castianos

ranked ahead of Bryce Harper. So it is very, very close. I have Castanos ranked one spot higher. And Chris, you have Cassiano's down as your 10th outfielder. What do you do to you, man? Yeah,

that seems reasonable. All right. Yeah, I mean, he's going to give you nothing in speed, but he's just also, like, as good as he is, he's not going to keep hitting 350. He might be up to 360 at this point, actually.

3.46 for the year. Yeah, so, like, the guys ahead of him, okay, maybe Chris Bryant can move down a couple spots. Maybe Kyle Tucker can as well. Yeah, I guess I could move him up a little bit, but I'm going to keep Bryce Harper ahead of him. I'm sticking with that one. All right.

Yeah, I do think it's very close. That's why I asked the question. John Gray or Colby Allard as a two-star week, two-star pitcher next week. Who would you rather, John Gray? on Wednesday against the Pirates, six endings, two runs, five strikeouts. He's got a 3.89 ERA

on the season. Colby Allard, up against the Oakland A's. He allowed three runs in the first, and then settled down. Six endings, three runs, five strikeouts. Colby Allard has a 3.66 ERA since becoming a starter. That is six starts now. He's 18% rostered.

So Chris, who would you rather have as a two-star pitcher next week? John Gray or Colby Allard? Colby Oller has had some really, really significant drops in his spin rate. So that's a little concerning. I just think he's kind of just a guy. And John Gray, for the most part, is too. But I'll take John Gray.

I think he's a more talented player. Both of his starts next week do come on the road for John Gray at Arizona, at San Diego. But what do you make of this, Chris? His road ERA is 5.32. So I don't even know if that's a good thing at this point for John Gray. At's actually pretty consistent with his career, I think. I think he's been better over the course of his career. Let me check that right now.

Okay, not quite as much. 449 ERA at home, 458 on the road. But yeah, I think you feel pretty good about starting him with two starts on the road. You want to talk about a jag, Chris. A 4.5 ERA on both at both home and on the road for your career. It's pretty jaggy. for John Gray there. Dylan Sees or Chris Bassett?

Who would you rather have rest of season? Dylan Sees turns into quality start on Wednesday, six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. However, each of his pitches had the spin rate drop between 240 and 313 RPM for Dylan Seas. So that's now two starts in a row with those spin rates way down for him.

And then Chris Bassett, just another really good start. seven shutout, seven strikeouts against the Rangers. He's got a 3.04 ERA on the season. Who would you rather have, Chris, Dillon Seas or Chris Bassett, rest of season? I think it's Chris Bassett. You look at the peripherals and they're pretty similar for both players. Bassett might have a slightly lower ex-fip, but he's also shown the ability to, I don't know if I want to say outperform his peripherals,

but that's what he's done the last couple of seasons at least. And his XERA is actually 327, which backs up as 325 ERA. So I think he's more reliable. Seas has more upside, but I would take Bassett. I think that's a good way to put it. I think Bassett, higher floor, Seas, higher ceiling, but the opposite for each pitcher there. And it depends what you need.

Like more strikeouts for Dylan Seas, but also more walks. Chris Bassett over a strikeout running is actually pretty good. But I noticed we have Dylan Cesar. ranked all over the place. Scott has him at 30. I have him at 40, SP 40, and you have them at SP 63, Chris, for Dylan C's. So it was just, it was interesting to see like how far, like, all over the place is. It might be too low. Might be too low, but I will, I'll take the upside of Dylan C's, but, uh, man, given these spin rates, I think it's, it is super close between C's and Chris Bess. There's some, there's some volatility there for Dill and C's. Oh, yeah.

Would you rather, Bobby Bradley or Adam Duval, if you're just, just looking for power. Bobby Bradley had a double dong in game one of his doubleheader. He now has eight home runs in 20 games this season. Adam Duval went two for four with his 18th home run of the season. He's 55% roster. Chris, if you just need power, was you rather? Bobby Bradley or Adam Duval? I think it's Adam Duval.

Mostly just because he's playing more consistently. I think Bobby Bradley is still not quite playing every day. So I would take Duval. You know who I actually like in Cleveland, not necessarily as a big power source, but Harold Ramirez, he's been really solid this season. He's playing pretty much every day for Cleveland.

That's former Miami Marlins. Great Harold Ramirez. Legend of Miami Marlins. Yeah, Harold Ramirez betting 289 with six homers in 46 games. Also has two steals. You're right. He's been pretty solid.

He hits a lot of groundballs. I might be underselling Bobby Bradley, little bit now that I'm looking at the game logs. I thought he was getting more days off than this. No, he plays quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah, I'll still go with Duval. I think it's pretty close.

It is close. I'll take Duval as well, but it is close. Bobby Bradley, the one thing that stood out to me for him as a power hitter, 53% ground ball rate for Bobby Bradley. And throughout his minor league career, he's hit a good amount of ground balls too. So it's just kind of weird for Bobby Bradley. Bradley. But when he connects, man, I mean, his home runs fly a long way. I have some waiver wire hitters here, Chris, and they are all over the board. So I'm just going to throw names your way,

and you let me know if there's any format that you'd be looking to get them. It's 12 team points, is it 15 team roto, so on and so forth. We already brought up Hazu Sanchez, 39% rostered, seven home games next week. Where would you be looking to add, Hazu Sanchez? Any five outfield or 12 teams or deeper. All right. How about J.P. Crawford? I bring his name up a lot. He's kind of empty batting average-ish, but he went three-for-five with two runs scored on Wednesday. In over his last 37 games, he's batting 3-29, four homers, two steals, 20 runs scored again. J.P. Crawford. Forty-Croffered. Forty-Croffered. Anywhere, Chris? 15-team roto, that's about it. Can't even get a 12-team roto out of J.P. Crawford, huh? Yeah, I mean, if you need batting average,

He can help you there. But like you said, it's, it's pretty empty. Who is the antithesis of J.P. Crawford? If we can just combine these two players. Like, you ever watch Dragon Ball Z? Chris, they do like the fusion thing, like the Yeah, yeah. You got to be careful because if you don't do the dance, you'll end up with Dylan Moore. You want me, one.

Yeah, should we do that? We just have to get like the matching earrings. Should we do that? Should we get? Yeah. If you don't do it, if you don't play it right, the problem there is you might end up with Dylan Moore's plate discipline and J.P. Crawford's power. And that wouldn't work out. Oh, this is good, man. We should finally more players like this that we want to fuse together and

what would they become. But Dylan Moore is that player because he does the opposite. He gives you no batting average and he gives you home runs and he gives you speed. And he went three for five with a sock and a shoe on Wednesday. He's up to seven home runs and 13 steals in only 56 games. Mind you, he's batting one 98. So the batting average is awful. but his pace, Chris, in terms of homers and speed, is actually really good. 41% rostered. Dylan Moore? Anywhere?

I think he's back in the 12-team rode a discussion. Okay, so you're Dylan Moore over J.P. Crawford? Yeah. Okay. Christian Walker went three-for-five. He's on a seven-game hitting streak. He has two home runs during that stretch. Shown flashes of being pretty viable the past couple of years.

24% rostered on Christian Walker. Yeah, I actually had him. him, you know, as like a top 20 first baseman during the season. But I think he's only 15-team Roeos still. Garrett Hampson went four-for-five with two RBI. Very quietly hit 3.38 in June, but he has been losing playing time a lot recently. He's only started four of the last 10 games for the Rockies. 59% rostered is Garrett-Hampson, Chris?

12-team Roos, but barely. You know, I think he's pretty fringy there, and it's just for speed. How about his teammate? Brendan Rogers, two for two with two more walks. He's batting 279. He's got an 813 OPS. He has four home runs since returning from the IL, but zero stolen bases. He was dealing with a hamstring injury earlier, so they might not let him run very much. He is 45% roster, Brendan Rogers.

He was talking about wanting to steal 20 bases before the season, and I think the hamstring injuries just kind of derailed that. But who knows, maybe he gets the little All-Star break to get feeling a little better. and starts running after that. But definitely 12-team Roto Leagues. You know, as a middle-end fielder, I think he's in that discussion. I would, I'll throw points leagues in there

for any week that he's got a bunch of home games. I think you could stream Brendan Rogers in a points league there. Garrett Cooper went three-for-four with two RBI. He basically plays every other day. Not very exciting. Anything here, Chris? Garrett Cooper.

NL only. NL only. How about Gavin Sheets? We spoke about yesterday. Back-to-back multi-hit games to start his career. he also hit his first home run of the season on Wednesday. 2% rostered. Yeah, probably AL only and even that might be stretching it.

All right. Andrew Vaughn added two hits in his seventh home run. He's 57% rostered. He's got six road games next week, though the matchups are pretty interesting. He's at Minnesota and at Baltimore. Two very bad pitching staffs. Andrew Vaughn has been a huge disappointment this year, Chris. He's 57% rostered.

If you look at his monthly batted ball data, it's all over the place. One month, way too many ground balls, one month, way too many fly balls. I think he's trying to figure things out.

Yeah, I actually wrote about Andrew Vaughn today. I wrote a column just talking about the rookie struggles and which struggling rookies

I would be willing to buy and Andrew Vaughn is one of them and mostly it just comes down to he's showing a lot of skill. He's just not putting it all together yet. And the biggest issue

so far has been plate discipline, surprising because, you know, we talked about him before the season as possibly being like a, like an Anthony Rizzo type when it comes to play discipline. But he is hitting the ball really, really hard. And so, you know, it's the kind of thing where you just want to bet on talent, I think. And so I've hung on to him in my 12-team Roto leagues and I am, you know, I think he's still worth rostering there. In Keeper or Dynasty, bye. By Andrew Vaughn. if anybody is concerned about him. Some leftovers from Wednesday.

Tyler O'Neill, nice little bounce back game, went three for four with two doubles and his six stolen base. The plate discipline has actually been much better for Tyler O'Neill in the month of June. The Babbitt Bandits were back at it again. Adam Frazier and Brian Reynolds. They each had two hits. Reynolds hit his 14th home run of the season.

Wander Franco went two for five with an RBI and his second stolen base. He also had a batted ball that was 109 miles per hour. So, all right, slowly, but surely, Wander Franco. Let's get him going here. He's another one of the rookies I'm absolutely buying. Yeah, JD Martinez must have heard us talking smack. He now has two home runs over his last four games.

Luis Garcia was bad. Four innings, four runs, five strikeouts. Did have 14 swinging strikes. That was against the Orioles. And Joe Mosgrove was also bad. He was at the Reds, four innings, five runs, three strikeouts. Velocity, I want to pay attention to this across the board was down about one to two miles per hour for Joe Musgrove.

Spin rates, no issues there, but velocity down a little bit. So Musgrove throughout his career, someone who, when the fastball is like 93 miles per hour and up, he's good. He's solid. But once it starts dipping down to 92 miles per hour, that's when you start to get yourself in trouble here with Joe Musgrove. And Chris, you know, I thought he was having like a bad stretch. And then I looked into it and I think he has three quality starts in a row.

It feels like Musgrove's been worse than he has been recently, but this was like his legit, actually only bad start. I mean, his ERA is still sitting at 222. He still has 103 strikeouts in 85 innings. His whip is still below 0.9. I definitely agree with you. It feels like he's fallen off, but his ERA is below three each month of the season.

Well, I guess it might not be for, it might not have ended up being below 3 for June. Let me take a look at that real quick. quick at 28.3. Yeah, 35 ERA in the month of June. So trending down 1.24, 2.84, 3.49. still very good. Yeah.

If he maintains a mid-3s ERA with 9 or 10 Ks per 9, I mean, that's still like a top 25 starting pitchers. Strikeout rate is down. That's the one thing is below a strikeout per inning in the month of June 27 and 28 and a third. Something to keep an eye on. you know, for those of us who were hoping Joe Musker was making, you know, that true ace leap. I think he's more, I think he's more like a top 20-ish starting pitcher for me.

I have him 15. So, you know, still outside of that East tier. The call to the pen. Let's get some bullpen updates from Wednesday. And Alex Reyes talked about him yesterday. We'll talk about him again. He's now 20 for 20 in save opportunities. This season continues to be awesome. For the Phillies, Hector Nerris continues to. not be awesome. He pitched in the sixth inning. He gave up three hits and two runs, which furthers Jose Alvarado's case for being the closer if he can just get things together

himself. So we'll see what happens. The Phillies bullpen is always a roller coaster. For the Baltimore Orioles, Paul Frye pitched in the seventh and I believe he started the eighth inning. And then Cole Solcer came on and got his third save of this season. So there's been games where Sulsar comes in in the fifth or the sixth, I think there's really no rhyme or reason to the Orioles bullpen, and it's been that way as long as Brandon Hyde has been their manager. So I think

in deeper leagues, you can roster both of them, Solcer and Paul Frye, but anything shallower than 15 teams, I probably would say, don't even best. That's the issue when you don't have good pitchers. Yeah. Hard to settle on one when none of them are good. These guys have actually pitched well,

Chris. I think it's more so just their starting pitchers are so bad. They get knocked out early in the game and they have to use their good relievers earlier than they want to just to try and maintain a lead, which, you know, it's, it's the Orioles. That's what is going to happen. Though they have some awesome prospects on the way, like three years from now, the Orioles might be really, really good. For Oakland. Famous last words. Yeah, right? For Oakland, Lutrovino got his 13 save of the season for the Mariners. Kendall Graveman pitched, recorded five outs across the eighth and ninth inning. Drew Steckenrider

got the save in the 10th inning. And then in that Angels and Yankees game, I mentioned the meltdown for a role this Chapman. I don't know what's going on with him. I really would not be surprised if they're not going to move him out of the closer's role, but I wouldn't be surprised if maybe for a week or two, they kind of just use him in lower leverage situations to try and get him back on track. because Chadman's been really bad.

He's dealt with injuries in the past. The past couple of years, there's been the knee. Do you have an arm injury at one point? I know the knee was a recurring thing. The knee was always a thing. He's just not 100% right now. It wouldn't be surprising, given the way he's pitching right now. And maybe he could use 10 days off.

Chris, his June, a roll of this Chapman's June. How about this? We'll start with this. His April and May combined, he allowed one earned run. A roll of his Chapman's June. He allowed 12 runs, 11 of those earned over 8 and 2 thirds

innings pitched. Yeah, that's bad. 11.42 ERA, 2.77 whip. If it makes you feel better, before tonight, it was only 7 earned runs in like 8.1 innings. Doesn't make me feel better, Chris. I think that should make you feel better.

I don't know what is going on with Simon. It's very bad. You know, three walks today and then the grand slam. That's, I don't know, he just, he doesn't look right right now. I kind of want to cry because it's such a bad loss, man. They gave up seven runs in the ninth inning. It's so bad. Anyways, he's just eight walks over his last four outing now.

Yeah, the sticky stuff, sticky stuff no more for Roll this Chapman. On the other side, Jose Reisel Iglesias picked up his 15th save of the season. and he has been money since May on. He's a by-low candidate, if anyone's worried about him. For sure. Wrap up with to stream or not to stream here for Thursday. Johnny Quato at the Diamondbacks, Dane Dunning at Oakland,

Jordan Montgomery versus the Angels, Griffin Canning at the Yankees, J.C. Mejia versus the Astros. And Ryan Weathers at the Reds. I want to say I went with Quoedo and Montgomery yesterday, so I'll stick with those two. Yeah, there is not really a third one that I feel great about here. And I have to do this.

I could see a decent outing from Canning, but I wouldn't feel great about it. For Friday, to stream or not to stream, let's run through some of the names here. Who do we got? How about Eduardo Rodriguez at the Oakland A's? Drew Smiley versus the Marlins, Zach Thompson opposing him against the Braves. We have anybody else here? Alec Mills, he stinks. Shane McClainahan at the Blue Jays.

That's great pitcher, but rough matchup. J.T. Brewbaker versus the Brewers, Adrian Houser at the Pirates. Actually, some interesting ones. Logan Gilbert against the Rangers, too. I don't know what his roster rate is, but I would imagine it's not too high to be included in this.

Gilbert would probably be my favorite if he qualifies. I would guess Alec Manoa doesn't really qualify, but if he did, he would be up there. Logan Gilbert is 70% rostered. So he's right on the cutoff there. I'm going to do it again. Alex Cobb, guaranteed quality start. Seven strikeouts, six innings, two earn runs allowed.

Alex Cobb's going to shove it in all the haters' faces. He's going to be great. Actually, that is a revenge game against the Baltimore. Revenge game. Revenge game. He's going to do it. All right, if you say so. I think Drew Smiley is okay

against the Marlins. I really don't want to use Shane McClanahan in that spot. I actually don't mind either of Bruyaker or Adrian Houser, too. Like, if you're just for a streamer. You know what? I will say. Pick up Shane McClanhan.

Yes, you should. I think he's roster rate. Whether you start him now or not, pick him up for this start and leave him on your bench if you need to. Yes. Yes, to all of that. You should have him on your team.

He should be 95% rostered. He should not be under 70%. It's one of the weirdest things that I have seen. All right, Chris, this is the last time that we're actually going to do a podcast together until, I think, Monday? Sixth. Yeah, the fifth. This is Monday. Monday.

All right. So we're not going to see you then. Happy birthday, buddy. Thank you. All right. Thank you. The big three three. Big three.

I'm actually turning 30 this year, too. Wow. I'm entering the territory. Old man. Old man. For Chris, I'm Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.