Fantasy Baseball Today - Is Dylan Cease Back? Week 13 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (6/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

After three solid starts in a row, is Dylan Cease back (2:13)? ... Taj Bradley got a ton of strikeouts and whiffs on Thursday (6:30). ... Is Shohei Ohtani the GOAT (12:55)? ... Where's the power with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (16:05)? ... AJ Smith-Shawver unveiled some strong secondary pitches (20:26). ... Jake Burger is due for more playing time with Moncada on the IL (28:20). ... News (35:10): Max Fried is throwing from short distances. ... What's the latest on Christian Encarnacion-Strand (39:08)? ... Let's get into our Week 13 preview (45:05)! Which two-start pitchers and sleeper hitters are best to target? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (55:38). 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.  Bid on fun FBT experiences as part of the Fantasy Football Today Draft-A-Thon, supporting St. Jude. Here's a spot in one of our 2024 FBT listener leagues: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754477549?hash=item57411b85ed:g:5p8AAOSwy8lkiJds Bid on a guest spot on Fantasy Baseball Today: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754456105?hash=item57411b3229:g:P0MAAOSwA~JkiJg3 Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Scott White: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754554172?hash=item57411cb13c:g:b-IAAOSwNLNkiNXc Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Chris Towers: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754517228?hash=item57411c20ec:g:gpgAAOSwObJkgO26 Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Frank Stampfl: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754521463?hash=item57411c3177:g:IjMAAOSwOkNkgO14 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

Been tough fantasy baseball today on June 16th. Frank Stamphill joined by Scotty Dubbs, Scott White. Today on the show is Dylan C Speck, Week 13 sleepers, and two start pitchers. 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. So all of our live pods are FBT after dark, right? We record really late. This one might be FBT at sunrise, Scott. It's been a pretty late week for the boys, man. Yeah, well, I'll take the blame today. I've had one of those weeks where it feels like I got behind at the start of the week.

And so every day I was just behind and I never was able to close the gap. And so here at the end of the week, I was, you know, kind of flying through the box scores at the last minute trying to get ready for this podcast. We'll see how it goes. I imagine it'll go fine, but it pushed back the start time. So I'll take the blame today. I can't take the blame for yesterday. You were telling me that was the problem as well. No, I mean, look, once in a while, it's it's all right for you to do. I mean, every night it's basically me, right? It's I'm trying to collect all this data and these late night games and stuff. And so we're starting pretty late. We do appreciate everyone hanging out with

us live, but let's jump in. You can put it on the ball. Let's start things off with Dylan Cease, a tough luck outing at the Dodgers, five and a third innings, two runs, three walks to 10 strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes on 102 pitches. He actually left in the sixth inning with two runners on base. Ronaldo Lopez came in, I think he gave up another hit, and then a grand slam, which tied the game at the time.

So two runs charged there to Dylan Cease, but he limited the hard contact against a tough Dodgers lineup, only three hard hits allowed. And over Dillon Sees' last three starts, he has 23, 14, and 17 swinging strikes during that time. So the slider is slowly getting better, still walking too many batters. But I've been encouraged, Scott. I think I've been the low guy on Dillen Seas.

I've been ranking him closer to the top 30 starting pitchers right around that 30 range. You know, I saw this start. I moved them back up a little bit, but I think this is a really encouraging. It has come, you know, two of those starts are against the Marlins and the tigers. So, you know, maybe you take it with a grain of salt. But this is what we need to see.

We need to see more whiffs. And it looks like it's starting to come around for Dylan C's. Yeah, it does. And look, the walks are probably always going to be an issue. He's 27 now. I don't know that that's a hurdle he's ever going to clear. Even last year, as good as he was with the ERA and the low twos. Dylan C still issued 3.8 walks per 9, which is very, very high.

Led the majors with 78 walks. So it's part of his game. And we understand that. But as I was saying earlier in the year when he wasn't getting so many whiffs, if he's not going to be an elite batmissor with that built-in control issue, then it's going to lead to some real problems. So the last three starts, as you point out, it seems like he's gotten back on track in terms of

in terms of dominating like the stuff. The stuff seems to be working like it did last year and you know even the year before when he had a 391 ERA and as I think Chris you and I all said coming into the season we think probably the true version of Dillen C's is closer to that 2021 version with the 391 ERA than the 220

ERA we saw last year right now as ERA's at 431. So I do expect more regression still, but I don't know that he's going to be quite an ace either, just because that that 2022 season just, it seemed like everything went as well as it. Like it was his 100th percentile outcome. Everything just came into place perfectly

to give us the best Dillen Cs that could possibly be. And this year's probably going to remain a bit of a, step back, but definitely trending the right direction. Yeah, I agree. I don't think that we're going to get an ace outcome moving forward for Dylan Cs, but for a lot of this season, he's been flat out unusable. He's been hurting your fantasy team. So if we can get him back to a borderline SP2, high-end SP3 range, then I think most people would welcome that at this point for Dylan Cs. I wanted to bring up a few hitters, Scott, that like Dylan Csies have been getting back on track recently. Mani Machado in the month of June is betting 320 with three homers and an 886 OPS. He went

two for five with his eighth home run of the season on Thursday. Jose Ramirez went three for four with two RBI and his sixth steal also in June batting 33 with four homers and a stolen base. Trey Turner went two for five with an RBI and his 12th steel and in the month of June 316 batting average two homers, five steals and an 872 OPS for him. Before we get to your oh my goodness gracious player Scott anything you'd like to add on those three i mean you know these were players drafted in the top two rounds i think we expected them to come around eventually machado j ram and tre turner never doubted in any of them fair enough never did nothing else needs to be said all right your oh my oh my goodness gracious player of the night

my oh my goodness gracious player of the night i believe is the olive garden breadstick of the day If I dare say so, Frank. I don't know why you didn't take it, you fool. Tage Bradley. Tage Bradley was setting Twitter a buzz this afternoon. I say tonight, but it was actually the afternoon when he pitched. He struck out 11. 11 strikeouts he had.

But he ended up exiting after only four in a third inning. So, you know, a little good news, bad news situation. It looked like he was cruising there for a while and then ran into trouble in the fifth, got pulled. But I think there's a lot to be encouraged about in this start. Nonetheless, of course, we were just talking about touch probably. It was earlier this week, right, where we were ranking some of the rookie pitchers. And we weren't ranking all of them. But, you know, we were talking, who would you rather have rest of season and included guys like Tanner Bybee and who else was in there?

a bunch of B names. Bobby Miller, Bryce Miller. Yep. Yeah. And I think it's maybe something we should have said at the time is that for most of that group, it's close enough that one start like this could shift things pretty dramatically. I think this start from Bradley is enough to favor him maybe over Bryce Miller and and Tanner Bybee now.

I mean, Bybee's been pretty underwhelming in terms of the Miss Bats. Tosh Bradley, for what it's worth, had 17 swinging strikes on 88 pitches. Maybe the most impressive start of the day, 79.9 mile per hour was the average exit velocity, 79.9. About as good as it gets. He did end up walking three. And, you know, it's worth pointing out he was facing the athletic. So favorable matchup, almost AAA lineup. But hey, he was having his struggles even against actual AAA lineup.

So let's not discount it. He looked really good. I think what he's going through now is a lot of just trying to figure out how to arrive at the right pitch mix. He has a few different weapons he can use rather than being one of those prospects that had just one like amazing pitch. that he can lean on. Bradley has a fuller arsenal and just, you know, finding the right method of attack for hitters, which is often something we see from pitchers his age. I don't think he's suddenly like a must-start option now,

but I'm certainly more optimistic about his immediate future than I was early this week. The strikeouts were amazing. 11 strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes, but still three walks, couldn't even qualify for winning. in this game, four and a third. So that's why, I don't know, I guess I was a little bit more down on the start from Todge Bradley. That's what he showed all year, right?

Like he gets whiffs, he gets strikeouts, but you know, the control has been a problem since returning from the miners has given up a lot of hard contact, not in this start, but leading up to this start he has. So I still kind of worry about, you know, how many, how often is he going to go six, even, even five innings like, you know how many times have gone six so far? How many is that? Zero. Well, there you go.

I don't, I don't, I don't, don't think we're going to go. going to get many quality starts at all. That was true for Yuri Perez, though, until Wednesday, when he went six for the first time. Yeah. So, like, yeah, like, okay, so I don't want to swing back all the other way, too. I mean, how many of these guys are for sure locked in as, you know, integral parts of your fantasy pitching staff? Not many of them. I think it's Bobby Miller, yes, I think has just recently emerged as part of that group.

could easily drop out of it if things take a turn for the worse who else among the rookie pitchers I think that's just it's got I think it's only Bobby Miller okay so like for a while we probably trusted Bryce Miller on that level like pretty much starting them every week and I was pretty close there on Tanner Bybee for a while too but Miller fell off dramatically

Bybee's just been kind of meh yeah I mean they all remain they all have intriguing enough characteristics that in a pitching poor environment you're going to want to really latch on to the positive traits and hope it turns into something more consistent.

And I'm just saying it's been a while since we've seen anything of this positive from Tosh Bradley. So I'm back to being hopeful for him when I, earlier this week, I was pretty down on him. I guess I would put Yuri Perez in that makes to, assuming he sticks around. I mean, that's the biggest question mark

right now. We just, we keep hearing these rumors about when Trevor Rogers returns, they could send Yuri Perez down to the minors. But yeah, I would probably include him in that mix with Bobby Miller as someone I pretty much just trust at this point. Before we get into some other segments here, every year our friends over at Fantasy Football Today,

they put on a great event called the Draftathon. It's a whole evening dedicated to helping you draft a great fantasy football team and raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. And that's where we come in. Up on eBay, right now, there are a ton of fun listings, including a spot in one of our 2024 podcast listener leagues, a guest spot on the podcast,

plus pre-draft Zoom calls with either Scott, Chris, or myself, whichever one you want to bid on, you want to bid on all three. Feel free to do so. So right now you can go bid on whichever item you want to try and win most. All of the proceeds going to St. Jude, so again, it's for a great cause. I tweeted all the links out from the FBT Twitter at FBT Pod, but I also have each link in the podcast and the YouTube description. So again, there's a spot in the listener league, a guest spot on the podcast,

and 2024 pre-Fantasy baseball draft, Zoom conversations with either Scott, Chris, or myself. So yeah, head on over and start bidding, whichever one you'd like to be a part of. Speaking of FFT, Scott, Heath Cummings, who used to be a regular on this podcast, he asks us a fun question on Twitter tonight. Is Shohay Otani already the goat? And, uh, I look, obviously he has more to accomplish.

But whenever I talk to my friends and family and anyone brings up Otani, like, how good is this guy really? I say, he's the most talented baseball player I've ever seen play baseball now. You know, there's a bunch of people that have seen more baseball than me in their lives. I'm,

what, turning 32 years old this year. But, uh, yeah, I just think in terms of pure talent, he probably is. the most talented player I've ever seen. Yeah, it's difficult to know how to measure that because he has the talent of two really good players.

Is he the best of all time at either one of those things? No. But he's one of the best currently at each of those two things. And that's nothing we've ever seen before. I mean, all times, a long time, especially when you're talking about major league baseball. And so like, if, if, I don't know, I understand the argument for saying yes to that, I would be inclined to say no to that.

But what I have been saying for a couple years now is that going into each season, somebody asks you to predict who AL MVP is maybe he goes to the NL next year. But whoever the MVP for Otani's league is going to be, the default answer should be. Otani, unless he's showing obvious signs of decline because he's contributing twice as much as any other player. And it's, you know, each of those individually would be an MVP candidate in theory. Yeah. And what did he do on Thursday? Otani tied the league lead with his 22nd home run. Another homer that goes to left center field off of a left-handed pitcher. He now has seven home runs

in 14 June games. And he did that on a day where he was the pitcher. And he did that on a day where he was the pitcher. delivered a quality start, six innings of two-run ball, only three strikeouts, but a 3.29 ERA and a 105 whip on the season for Shohei Otani. I don't want to pour cold water in the situation here, Scott. But are you worried at all about Otani, the pitcher? Because the swinging strike totals in the past three starts, 5, 10, and 5. And over his last nine starts, he has a 4.67 ERA. Your thoughts? Yeah, I just, like I get it. That's not. not good, but on the pantheon of things to worry about, it seems very, very low.

All right. I would say, I'm just in, he'll probably be fine. There are leagues where, you know, they separate the play at the hitter and the pitcher. So I think if you play on Yahoo, you might just have Pitro Tonny and you might be wondering, hey, what's going on, man? Like the strikeouts are down and he hasn't, you know, been good since the start of May or whatever. As a pitcher, obviously as a hitter, he's really, really taken off. I will talk about him a little bit later on just in terms of scheduling next week, but I think for the time being, you want to use Otani as a hitter the way that he is playing right now. So Otani's hitting a bunch of home runs. There's two players that I wanted to bring up

that are really not hitting home runs right now, Scott. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He went two for four with three hard hit balls on Thursday, including one at 116.2 miles per hour exit velocity. he's batting 284. He only has nine home runs this season. He's on pace for 21 homers and 96 RBI. I mean, that is a letdown for a player who was drafted as a borderline first round pick once again this season.

And the more I look into it, Scott, I think he's a buy low right now because the ground ball rate is down, which is exactly what we want. The average exit velocity and the barrel rate for Vlad Jr. is actually closer to 2021, when he had that MVP campaign or near MVP campaign than last year. So based on the expected stats and everything,

if anyone in your league is even slightly worried about Vlad, I would be looking to buy it. Yeah, I mean, obviously we all have him ranked higher than how he's actually performed so far. So it's from that, in that respect, yes, we consider him a buy low. We think he's going to be better than he's been thus far. and the data all backs it up, as you point out. And pretty much like the expected stats look very much like his 2021 season when he was the number one player in fantasy,

even as a non-base stealer. I doubt he's going to get back to that form this year. I mean, maybe at some point in his career he's still a very young guy. But, yeah, Guerrero's number should be better than they are, I think. We'll see a correction over the course of this season. The other name is Wander Franco, who went three for five, which brings his batting average to 301. However, he has hit just one homer since May 10th.

That is 32 games with just one home run for Wander Franco. And during that stretch, 87 mile per hour average exit velocity, that's really middling. It's actually below league average, a 50% ground ball rate. And the early season breakout, Scott, was Wanderfranco, lifting the ball more and hitting more fly balls and obviously hitting for power. So any concern here about the lack of home runs recently for him? Well, I don't know that my expectation for what he could do power-wise ever really change that much.

And so it stands to reason that he'll have stretches like this where he's not delivering much. what's really changed for me is that he's gone from being just like a modest source of stolen bases to one of the best in all the baseball I mean when you improve a skill when you're already a pretty good fantasy option and then you become

you add this this skill like at an elite level like that I mean he's on pace for for what almost 50 steals yeah 50 50 on the dot how many home runs if you're going to hit for

average, which Wander Franco as little as he strikes out, is obviously going to do. How much power do you, if you're going to hit for average, you're going to steal 50 bases? How much power do you honestly need to be like a monster in fantasy? I think he has enough to do that. And I think the rate he's been on over his last 30 games or whatever will improve anyway. And just to be clear, I am not poo-pooing Wander-Franco. He's been amazing. I think I have him ranked as like a top five or six shortstop in the rankings.

But just something I noticed. He's on pace for 18 home runs, whereas earlier in the season it looked more like a 25 to 30 home run profile. He's slowed down just a bit. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we'll talk about AJ Smith Chavro at a really good start up against the Rockies. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back. And a quick reminder to follow us on TikTok at ticktock.com slash at FBTpod.

or just search FBT pod on TikTok. We usually take highlights of the podcast or interesting conversations. We cover them up with some highlights. We have some fun. So if you do dabble on TikTok again, at FBT pod on there. Let's talk about A.J. Smith, Shaw, or Scott,

who had a near-quality start up against the Rockies. Five and two-thirds, three runs allowed, six strikeouts, but 17 swinging strikes on 99 pitches. His velocity was up around one mile per hour across the board in the start. And we were talking beforehand about one of his pitches that looked very interesting.

What do you got? Yeah, so, well, just to rewind a little bit here, 17 swinging strikes you mentioned for Smith-Sholver in this start. Remember, in his first start against the Nationals, he had just six swinging strikes on 86 pitches and his average fastball velocity was 93 in that one.

And, you know, he seemed to have a little limited arsenal. So I think we're all kind of underwhelmed by what we saw, given how he just rocketed through the entire minor league system and the Braves who have a good history of promoting these prospects early before they're even really that well known, and it goes brilliantly. And so we were hoping that's what would happen with Smith-Sholver and his first career start while he didn't allow when he earned runs. Left much to be desired, I'd say. I did point out that in that start,

even though he averaged just 93 miles per hour on his fastball, you look at what he was doing just in the minors this year. He was averaging closer to 95 in his start. So maybe something was going on there. And when we saw him, Ms. Schaver get back to his usual velocity, things would approve. Okay. So fastball was up a mile per hour in this start.

It was 94. So kind of split the difference. But not just that. Yes, he kind of revealed this much fuller arsenal that I didn't even know he had. I thought it was mostly fastball slider, sort of like Spencer Strider. So he got four whiffs on the fastball,

four on curveball, three on the slider, and then six on the change-up, which, according to Stackast, he hadn't thrown yet as a major leaguer in either his first long relief appearance or that first start. six on the changeup,

which he threw only eight times. All six times that a batter swung at the changeup, they missed it. It had a 100% whiff rate. And it was his, of the 17 whiffs he had the most came on that one pitch, even though we hadn't seen it yet at the major league level, and he threw it just eight times in this game.

So, AJ Smith-Shawber, I suggest you throw your change-up more. Because it seems like, like good things happen when you do. All in all, this is more like it, right? Like, if I was hesitating to add Smith Schaver

because I wanted to see the stuff play, well, the stuff clearly played, granted, Rockies on the road, bad lineup, still. He faced the nationals last time. You know, this was a lot better. So I definitely was impressed by what I saw from Smith Schallver today.

and Smith Chauver is 69% rostered. He's at the Phillies next week. Three pitchers we talked about last night as potential waiver wire ads and frankly, I think all three of those plus Smith-Shawber are all very interesting, Scott. So ranking this group, it feels really tough. So it's Smith-Shawver, Garrett Whitlock,

Ranger Suarez, and Reed Detmer's. How would you rank that group of four? Well, it is tough. My rankings for next. week specifically might be a little different if you're you're playing the streamer game there got a couple of these pictures as as part of my 10 sleeper pitchers for next week and smith jolver isn't among them i'll point out who's he facing philly in his neck philly's yep that's what it says on cbs at least i mean that he wouldn't be bad okay anyway

Look, rest of season. That's what we usually do, right? Yep. I will go. So I feel like they're all kind of in, okay, we're seeing encouraging signs, but you still need to, like, prove it. I guess still have a lot more questions

than answers about all of them. And so we're just kind of feeling them all out right now. Dettmer's less so maybe than the others. Detembers might have the most pure talent, but pretty much all season he's done the same thing. thing and it's been pretty underwhelming. I know his last start was good. It was just the second time he went six innings all year.

But I'm inclined to rank him at the bottom right now just because I feel like there's, I don't know. There's less mystery, at least in the present. So ahead of him, I will go Whitlock one, Smith Shaw, or two, Suarez, three. Okay. I think I said yesterday that Detmer's has the highest upside of that group, but he also might have the lowest downside based on how he's pitched, you know? I think he does.

It's just we have a lot. We've seen a lot more starts for him this year than those other three, you know? And it's for him to have one start where he lives up to the upside, what, 12, 13 turns into the season. I don't know. That's just not enough to move the needle for me. Okay. That's fair enough. Let's talk about Logan Allen, who had another rough outing at the Padres, five-inning.

Five runs allowed over three innings pitched. More walks than strikeouts in the start. Eight swinging strikes on 77 pitches. And his ERA is now up to 3.95. His whip is at 1.46. And he is down to 73% rostered. Does face the Oakland A's next week. So a pretty good matchup for him.

Scott, would you drop Logan Allen for any of the names we just talked about? I would drop him for any of the names we just talked about. Although I do have him as a lot. sleeper pitcher for next week. All right. Oakland has struggled against lefties.

They're 25th in Wobah. Again, that is Logan Allen. Three pitchers that had a bunch of whiffs, doesn't matter for any of them. You say Kikuchi, just okay. At the Orioles. Four and two-thirds, two runs allowed. Seven strikeouts with 19 swinging

strikes. Paul Blackburn has actually been solid in three of his four starts facing Tampa Bay, one of the best lineups in baseball. Five and two-thirds, three runs allowed. Two of those earned. nine strikeouts with 17 swinging strikes, and then Matthew Boyd,

at the twins, six innings of four-run ball, eight strikeouts, and 19 swinging strikes. Scott, do any of these names matter? Boyd, Blackburn, and Cacucci. I can't say I have a lot of interest in them as of now, but I am noticing,

and I am continuing to watch them closely. I think for Matthew Boyd, especially, because Matthew Boyd's swinging strike rate for the year, it's over 13%. I mean, it's elite. It's the best it's been since that 2019 season when he struck out 238 batters.

He's always been kind of a curious pitcher. He's not allowing, you know, he's still gets a lot of home runs, not nearly as much as that 2019 season. But the results, you know, in terms of allowing runs and pitching deep into games, all of that, that's been not so great. So it's not like I'm going to add Matthew Boyd on the swinging strike rate alone.

But if he starts to have some success, it'll be easy to point to that swinging strike rate and be like, ah, see, this is why it was there all along. So I'm just keeping an eye on him. Keep an eye on all three of these guys. Okay. Let's move over to Waverwire hitters. And Jake Berger, one day after a double dong went, I haven't checked recently, but last I checked, he was one for four, hit his 16th home run, and had three. strikeouts in the game. So the entire Jake Burger experience, 45% rostered and Yowal Moncada actually went on the IL on Thursday. So it seems like Burger is going to be due for more

playing time. Scott, I moved Burger up to 26th in my third base rankings. That's just behind Brett Beatty, J.D. Davis, Anthony Rendon, Kibbrien Hayes. Does that sound like a good range or should Jake Burger be higher than that? So you have them ahead of Kibbrien Hayes? No, no, no, he's behind. Behind Beatty, J.D. Davis, Cabrine Hayes. Oh, okay. Sorry, misunderstood.

Yeah, I mean, I guess that's fine. That's kind of like the end of the third baseman that are worth rostering, really, even in, like, a Roto League. So that's fine. Jake Berger's very interesting. Yes. And his playing time has been up and down. He is on, he is going through a stretch now where the White Sox are playing him more. so that obviously raises the interest level

but there are a few players who hit the ball harder than Jake Berger does and I mean the fact he has 16 home runs now for all the up and down playing time I mean that says it all right his hardest hit ball this year is 118.2 miles per hour which I don't know exactly where that ranks but I'm sure it's in the top five a hundred percent I'll max exit velocity I think Chris Towers pointed out that he was one of three hitters with a batted ball over 118 this season, or one of four. There you go.

I mean, the expected, because he's hitting the ball so hard, even though he's striking out more than 30% at the time, the expected stats look great. 275xBA, 565x slug. So I've been hoping for a couple years now that the White Sox would give Jake Berger more playing time. It's mostly coming at DH, and that's always a little like, you know, most teams don't like to clog up there. D.H spot with a single player these days. But, well, you know what? Mokata just went on the I.L. Right? Scottie. Bad boy.

I wasn't listening. I said that. Okay. Well, that makes it easier. I can easily just stick them in third base for the receipt. But yeah, so definitely Jake Burger somebody to look into. Yep. Danny Janssen went three for four with a double dong, had four hard hits in that game. He's only batting two 14. on the season, but has eight home runs in 39 games. He's 28% rostered.

I just don't know if he's going to play enough, Scott. I feel like he should be ranked in the same range as like a Travis Darno. Pretty good when he plays, but seems like he's not an everyday player. Would you take Jansen over any of Gary Sanchez or Mitch Garver? Those are two names that we were talking about yesterday as well. I'm not Sanchez right now. I mean, I don't have a lot of faith in Sanchez keeping this up. long term, but it's hard to get excited about a player hitting 214 like Danny Jansen is, you know.

So I would prefer Sanchez for right now. As for Garver, I feel like the playing time has really fallen off for him. Yeah, he started just three of the Rangers last seven games. So I'll take Janssen over Garver, sure. Okay. Let's talk about two other hitters. Jake McCarthy went two for four with his 13th steel and in 18 games since coming back from the miners, he's betting 310 with 11 stolen bases. He's 53% rostered. And Ezekiel Tovar went 2 for 4 with his sixth home run. And since the start of May, he's betting 273 with all six of those home runs,

three steals. And just very quietly, that's like a 21 homer, 10 steel pace for Tovar. So he's come around. He's obviously made adjustments. He's looked a little bit better. Scott, do you, should those names be rostered in more leagues? McCarthy's at 53%. Tovar is at 43%.

McCarthy's mostly interesting in categories leagues. So, you know, points leagues, particularly since they're usually three outfielder leagues. It's hard to see him even at his best being more than like a, you know, fringe starter type. So I don't know that he needs to be rostered in a ton of those. And if he's already at 53, that probably covers most of the roto leagues. Yeah, probably, yeah, he should probably be rostered in closer to 65 than 53, let's say. But I wouldn't call Jake McCarthy like somebody who needs to be universally rostered. Mainly he's given you a good steals total, hopefully with a pretty good batting average and some very modest power.

though I don't think we've seen much of any power at all this year, right? No. And as for Tovar, maybe 43% is a little low too, but what we're seeing from him here lately over these last 41 games since the start of May is, okay, so he's kind of started to produce like Bryson Stott. So, I don't know. If that's what we were waiting for from Ezekiel Tovar, I'm a little underwhelmed. Yeah.

I'm not saying he can't be useful, but he doesn't, He doesn't seem, we're still not really seeing a potential high-end outcome from him. Okay. In deeper leagues, two names here. Matt Veerling returned on Monday, and over his last four games, his six hits and a home run. He's only 4% rostered. Mickey Moniac went three for four with his sixth home run. Still batting 319 with a 1028 OPS, but just doesn't play enough.

He started five of the past eight games for the Angels. You know, 15 team, five outfielder leagues got. Anything here with Veerling or Moniac? I mean, Moniac would be really interesting if he played more, but he and Taylor Ward are kind of robbing at bats from each other, and both are performing well. So that makes it really tricky for fantasy purposes. I would just say it's hard to use Moniac right now with as little as he's playing.

If that changes, maybe he becomes one of the most added players, but I don't think he deserves to be at the moment. And Veerling, you know, he's kind of getting inconsistent playing time too. Gosh, they're playing a lot of Jake Mariznick, really? Jake Mariznick? You need defense. Come on, Tomo, man. He's less interesting than Moniac, I'd say.

All right. Let's hit some news and notes. Max Fried was recently clear to throw short distance bullpen sessions. He's been on the IL since early May with a forearm strain and is still over a month from returning. Max Muncie said, that his left hamstring strain is of the low-grade variety that came one day after it was reported as a grade two hamstring strain. Cody Bellinger and Byron Buckson were both activated for their respective teams.

Bucson was batting cleanup and Bellinger was batting sixth for the Cubs. Matt Olson was dropped to fifth in the Braves lineup given his 228 batting average but responded well by going two for four with his 19th home run. Scott, you're shaking your head. You don't like the move? No, I'm fine with the move. It's just Matt Olson's batting 228 again. And I felt like I was promised by so many. I guess I'm one of the people who should be promising things, right?

I wasn't making this promise. But remember when at spring training, he was like the hottest player alive and batting 450? Yeah. A lot of people, many people were saying, this is Ed, Matt Olson. He's more comfortable in year two. He's going to be MVP candidate. And here it is halfway through the season. and he's not even batting 2.30.

I had a feeling that would happen, TBH. I have no shares of Matt Olson. And I'm not saying like he's condemned to finish with a batting average this low, but I don't think we're seeing the 2021 Matt Olson again. I just, I don't think it's there. Yeah, it feels like he should be hitting more like 240 at least or a 250.

The power has still been tremendous 19 home runs. And I placed. a preseason bet on Matt Olson to lead baseball and home runs. So if we can get on a little heater here, we still got a chance for Matt Olson. Alec Manoa was slated to throw a five-inning simulated game at the Blue Jays Spring Training Complex in Florida on Thursday. I couldn't find any updates on how it went. So I guess we'll have to wait to learn more about Alec Manoa. Despite dealing with swelling in his left ankle, Blake Snow has been clear to start Saturday against the raise in a revere.

revenge game. D-backs manager, Tori Lavulo, did not commit to Ryan Nelson making his next scheduled start after allowing five runs on Thursday. Perhaps Drey Jameson gets an opportunity to start. He threw two-and-a-third shutout in that same game. Or they could recall Brandon Fott, who recently had 10 strikeouts in his latest start at AAA. Any interest in either, Scott? Or do you have any kind of lean on which way this is going to go? Drey Jameson, Brandon Fott. It is worth noting Brandon Fott wasn't doing particularly well before that latest start so I don't know that I'd be that excited about him being about him coming back I don't know that I'm excited about any of these three Diamondbacks rookies pitchers. Okay. Pete Fairbanks was activated and instantly picked up a save Thursday against the A's Jason Adam was used in the eighth inning.

Kyle Wright was cleared to begin a throwing program he's been on the IL since early May with a shoulder strain. Zach Netto was placed on the IL with a left oblique strain. Andrew Velasquez started at shortstop. Yo-Al-Malkata, as we mentioned earlier, placed on the IL due to the nagging back injury. The Rangers are hopeful that John Gray will be able to start on Sunday against the Blue Jays.

He was scratched earlier in the week due to a blister. Alex Wood is likely to return from the IL and start Saturday against the Dodgers. Mike Clevenger has no structural damage to his arm after exiting a Wednesday. start early. Terrick Scuba put together another strong rehab start this time at AAA. He went three scoreless with five innings. So, uh, with three scoreless with five strikeouts. Excuse me. If you do have an IL spot available, go ahead and add Terik Scuba in the meantime.

Some prospect notes Christian and Carnaccio and Strand that started in a right field on Thursday. And this feels like the reason they haven't called them up, Scott. It has nothing to do with production or what he's done as a hitter. I just, don't know that they have a place to play him regularly in the majors. And I don't think they want to call him up until they can do exactly that. So they're trying him in the outfield. You know, first base, third base, DH, those have been occupied recently. Joey Votto hit a home run in a rehab game on Thursday. So perhaps he's close to coming up. It's, it's kind of messy right now. Well, you don't have a dedicated DH. You know, they have, they have places they could play

Carnassian's strand. And we've seen Spencer Stier get a couple of starts in the outfield. Maybe they don't want to. They use Tyler Stevenson a lot at DH, you know? They said before the season he wasn't going to catch that much. And it just seems like they want to stick to that. They shun it. I agree with you, but that's not necessarily how they feel, I guess.

The Reds are contenders now, too, is the thing. Like, they could take this division, especially as their lineup keeps getting better because they're adding talent to it. from their own system. And incarnation strand could only help with that. Like, I feel like he's going to do more from them than Joey Votto. Like, the crazy thing about Incarnacion Strand, I wasn't on yesterday's show, but I tweeted about this and I wrote about it in the Prospects Report.

Let me see if I can give you the updated numbers. They won't include, not including Wednesday's game anyway, provided they were playing. I don't even know if they were playing Thursday. But Incarnazion Strand, so his first 28 games at AAA this year, he had three walks to 36 strikeouts. Those first 28, three walks, 36. Last 16 games, 18 walks to 11 strikeouts. So it's completely, he's completely done an about face there with the plate discipline,

showing more than we've ever seen from Incarnacion Strand in his minor league. career. And you may remember, we saw something similar from Ellie de la Cruz in the weeks leading up to his promotion, and maybe that's what convinced the Reds to finally pull the trigger. I'm hoping the same is true for incarnation strand. But beyond just that, beyond just, wow, he's showing a lot more patience at the plate all of a sudden, he now has a batting average over 325 for his minor league career. I saw this from baseball America, actually.

So over 325 in at least 800 plate appearances, only 10 other minor league hitters have done that since 2010. 325 over 800 played appearances, 10 other minor leaguers. And it includes names like Mike Trout, Vladimir Guerrero, Wander Franco, Julio Rodriguez, and Jose Al-Tufe. That's five of the other 10 who've done that. And others, I think, like Luis Arise and Brandon Bell, like legitimate,

guys who went on to have like good Major League careers for pretty much all of them. And so like Incarnacion Strand is in rare territory for batting average, which is not even something we really associate with them. We just think of him as this guy who hits the ball incredibly hard and out of the park. So in every way that a hitter can impress,

Incarnacion is doing, in Incarnazion Strand, I'm sorry, he's doing that. And like it's just is ridiculous because he it seemed like he should have been the first up of all their minor leaguers who who were knocking on the door and For weeks now, we've been waiting for it to happen. That's what it felt like right during spring training as well as he was hitting and You thought maybe there was a chance he could be on the opening day roster and then he was dealing with an injury but yeah, it's it is weird that they've taken this long to call up CES Matt Mervis was optioned back to AAA after hitting just 167 with a 32% strikeout rate. And I would be looking to buy in Dynasty right now if you could.

I know it was rough. I still have a lot of faith in this player. Someone who did not strike out this much in the minors and hit for a lot of power. Hit for a good bang average too. So I still have a lot of faith. Who knows? Maybe Scott will be looking to sell in the dynasty. I was thinking about offers I could make to you earlier today.

When I should have been going over the box scores probably, that's what I was thinking about. How can I make Frank an offer he can't refuse in a less literal sense than they mean it and the Godfather? Yeah, I mean, it probably will not include all of Matt McLean, Brett Beatty, and Tanner Bybee Scott. But, you know, we'll talk. We'll be in touch. Creason Rodriguez on Wednesday, his latest start at AAA, six innings of two-run ball with 11 strikeouts that's back-to-back starts with double-digit strikeouts down in the minors. He is, I think, 52% rostered. So might want to stash him if you have a spot available. It's a little bit tougher because obviously Rodriguez would take up a normal roster spot and not something like an IL spot.

And according to Stackast, he had 28 swinging strikes in that game, which is the most for any pitcher. AAA this year. Wow. Awesome stuff. All right. Let's take our final break and when we return, our week 13 preview here on fantasy baseball today. Big thanks to everybody watching us live. We do appreciate you. It is very late here on the East Coast. So hit that like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Our week 13 preview, let's start with the schedule for next week. Five teams have five games. That includes the Cardinals, Cubs, Orioles, Angels, and Dodgers. 16 teams have six games and nine teams have seven games next week. The D-backs, Red Sox, Royals, Marlins, twins, pirates, Padres, Giants, and the Nationals.

As for the Rockies, they've got six games next week, only three at home, and those are against the Angels. Starters sit these fringe two-star pitchers, and we'll start with Alex Cobb, who has been scuffling as of late. He's going up against the Padres and the Diamondbacks. I have him in the points league only section of the two-star pitcher rankings. I think he's good enough that you don't really think too hard about it in that format. But I'd be a little hesitant in Categories leagues. What about his teammate Anthony Descliffeani, the same matchups? Yeah, probably not.

He's been pretty bad lately. Is he already up near 4-5 now with a pad strikeout rate? Probably just going to pass on Desclafani. Okay. Any interest in Michael Lorenzen versus the Royals and twins? Mike Clevenger, who's kind of ify right now. We don't know if he's going to go on the IL. Up against the Rangers and Red Sox and Cutter Crawford at the Twins and at the White Sox.

No. Not really. Do you? Lorenzen with the one start against the Royals, I thought was kind of interesting, maybe in a deeper league sense, but, you know, 12-teen points league. All the wind appears to be out of the. the sales there. Yep.

All right. Two star pitchers to add and stream. You have two, four, six, seven names here, Scotty. Who are they?

Well, one is Garrett Whitlock, who we talked about a little earlier. He continues to get uncharacteristically high swinging strike numbers, which with what appears

to be a new slider with, you know, more of a sweeping type of slider. And coming off a great start against the Rockies. and a really good start the term before that too. His matchups this week are at the twins and at the White Sox.

Two middling matchups there. I think the kind of run he's on makes him a pretty good play. Ranger Suarez, the matchups are a little tougher here, Braves and Mets. The Mets are kind of a mid-tier matchup, I would say. Suarez has also looked pretty different from when we last saw him. he is throwing a curveball more and his sinker less and getting more wits himself, mostly with that curveball. And the great Lance Brosdowski pointed out after his most recent start that the location of the sinker

has been quite a bit different than earlier this season and most of last season, which was kind of a disappointment for Ranger Suarez, you may remember. He was locating the sinker more up and in, and now he's attacking more on the outer part of the plate. and Lance Brasdowski thinks that might help explain why the curveball's been so effective. So that's somebody else's analysis, but I think it's pretty good analysis. So Ranger Suarez is pretty interesting right now.

Edward Cabrera, another two-star pitcher I like this week. He's going against the Blue Jays, which is not the worst matchup in the Pirates, which is a pretty good matchup. I've got to watch out for the walks there, but he's been better about that recently. Andrew Hines hasn't been at his best lately, but the overall numbers are still decent enough.

Obviously, pitches for the Rangers who give him tons of support and his matchups this week at the White Sox, at the Yankees. Those are both pretty good. The White Sox are especially bad against left-handed pitchers like him, and the Yankees, of course,

are missing Aaron Judge in their line. It has struggled without him. Johan Oviedo. Okay, so I put this list together, before I saw his most recent start here on Thursday where he gave up, what did he give up,

four and runs in four innings or something like that? Yeah, four and runs on eight hits and four and a third innings at the Cubs. It's what he did here on Thursday. Still had eight strikeouts in those four and a third innings. And over his previous six starts, Johan Oviedo had a 262 ERA. It was with a low whiff rate.

And, you know, a lot of the underlying numbers didn't really back up Johann Oviedo having a 262 ERA, but nonetheless, he's on a pretty good run right now. His matchups this upcoming week against the Cubs, the same Cubs that he faced today, but still a pretty weak offense. And then at Miami an even better matchup. So I think that's, I think Oviado is an okay choice,

particularly in points leagues if you're looking for to cram an extra start in there. Aaron Savale has even better matchups against Oakland, against the Brewers. He's had a very up and down season, more downs than ups, actually, but he's capable of giving you 6 plus when he does have a good start. And then finally Josiah Gray, who I have very little faith in, and

his matchups on paper are good against the Cardinals at the Padres, but those are two lineups that I feel like are still pretty good, even if they haven't scored runs at the rate we expected them to this year. And I just don't have a lot of confidence in Josiah Gray.

So that seems like more of a points league-only recommendation too. I feel like at some point he's going to come back down to earth. But with the way he's performed so far, I think you have to stick with Josiah Gray for the two starts. One thing on Josiah Gray, which we didn't point out yesterday, he made a start at the Astros, four runs over six innings, I think. He threw a sweeper 27% of the time. That was the first time he used it all season. And he threw a lot of them out. He threw 26 total sweepers. So it could be something that, you know, helps take Josiah Gray to the next level, hopefully.

but something to watch. Was it really distinct from his slider? Because sometimes I feel like the classification between the sweeper and the slider, however. However, Stackast tells them apart, it can get confused. He still threw a slider 17%. So they did distribute them among two different pitches. And I read somewhere or saw on Twitter that he acknowledged throwing a new sweeper.

He said he wanted to be more like you Darish and diversify his pitch arsenal and just okay yeah well and and I'm looking now at the characteristics of that pitch it's four miles per hour slower than the slider it's spin rate is 700 RPM high here so yeah it does seem like a very different pitch and hitters were 0 for 10 or I'm sorry O for hitless and 11 plate appearances against the sweeper okay just something to watch I thought it was kind of interesting for Josiah Gray single star star streamer Scott I'll quickly run through these names Louis Varland at the

Tigers Logan Allen who we mentioned earlier going up against the A's and Braxton Garrett, who has pitched very well since, I don't know, about the middle of May, early May. He's going up against the pirates. The best hitter matchups for next week, the Padres, Rays, Diamondbacks, Guardians and Mariners. The worst hitter matchups, Orioles, Rangers, Dodgers, Astros, and the Brewers. With that being said, Scott, your favorite sleeper hitters for week 13th. Well, I want to point out broadly that it was a struggle to find five teams with favorable hitting matchups. I don't know what was going on with the schedule, but it seemed like everybody's hitter matchups were just not that great.

But I came up with five. A lot of my sleeper hitters don't necessarily come from those five since I wasn't crazy about the matchups anyway. And usually it's more like 10 teams have good hitting matchups, and I narrow it down to the best five. you know, but this week it was like three teams had good hitting matches. Anyway, Matt McLean, still at the top of the list, basically the third straight week. Got to get that roster rate over 80%. I don't know what's going on. But Matt McLean will keep them up there just because he's Matt McLean.

Lane Thomas seems like a great start this week. The Nationals matchups aren't among the best, but they're not bad. They have seven games, which few teams do this week. And three of those seven games are against lefties. Lane Thomas has. always been a destroyer against lefties and especially this year his numbers are ridiculous pulling him up now lane Thomas against lefties 370 batting average 1081 OPS got to start him this week Marcelo Zune is on here again brace matchups are pretty good

Luke Rayleigh who you mentioned the race have the second best matchups and five are against righties. So we can expect Brailey to play a lot this week. It's had good power and speed numbers all year. Jake Berger does make the list here. The White Sucks matchups actually aren't that great, but they're facing three lefties. Of course, he's homered three times in his last two games,

and his numbers are at their best against lefties. It's not a crazy split lefties righties for Jake Berger, but he's better against lefties. Jake McCarthy's on here, who we talked about earlier, the dime-debacks of the third-based matchups, seven games, all righties. Should be a good week for Jake McCarthy. Gary Sanchez is the lone representative from the Padres, who have the best hitter matchups.

I'm always hesitant to put catchers on this list because you're not starting a catcher at utility, so how many people are really going to benefit from this recommendation? I don't know. But Gary Sanchez is on it. Edward Julian's on it just because the twins are facing one lefty in their seven games, so six times he showed that lead off. And then a couple of Guardians, Josh Bell, who's picked it up at the plate recently.

Guardians have the fourth best matchup. Josh Bell and Will Brennan, who has been hot as well. All right. Well, we usually wrap up this segment talking about where to use Otani. Next week, he's in course field as a pitcher. He's got five games as a hitter. Again, three of those in cores. So I think more often than not, you're going to use Otani as a hitter next

week. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here very quickly, Scott. And I probably could have talked about this earlier and giving it a little bit more time. I don't know what else there is to say. Like Aaron Nola, he's inconsistent. He gives up four more runs. He's now given up four plus runs in six of his last nine starts. I can't blame people for being annoyed, Scott. I mean, this is likely your SP1. You drafted him in the second or third round of drafts. And here we are. it's June 16th. Aaron Nola has a 466 ERA and less than a strikeout branding.

Any latest thoughts? Well, I mean, the strikeouts have been trending up and he had nine in this one. So I don't think the strikeouts, I don't think that's the concern with Nola anymore. What was the number I pulled here earlier? Over his last, oh, I didn't write how many stars it was.

I don't know. Something like his last six starts. He has a near-stop. 16% swinging strike rate. So, sort of like Dylan Cese, except even over a longer span of time, Aaron Nola has been missing bats at the rate we like to see. Lately, it's been feeling a lot like his 2021 season, where all year we were like, everything seems fine here.

We don't know what's going on. He's got to bounce back soon. He's got to come out of this. And he ends up finishing with an ERA around 450 because it just never happened over the course of that season. Of course, it happened the next season. Eventually, it does normalize. But I can't predict exactly when that'll be.

I don't think he's killing you. I'm certainly not in points leagues. He's killing you. The ERA is higher than you'd like. I mean, you look at just like the character in this start. His whip was basically an even one. He allowed seven base runners in six and two thirds innings. He had the nine strikeouts.

He allowed just one home run. So it's not like that was the reason he gave up four runs. I agree it's frustrating. I don't think it's like, I think there are enough underlying reasons to be encouraged and I don't think that in the frustration he's like killing you. It's disappointing. It's frustrating.

But he's still a must start, I would say. All right. Some other pitching leftovers, Tyler Wells, another quality start. Six and two-thirds, two runs loud with eight strikeouts and 14 swinging strikes. Marcus Tremon leads baseball with 13 quality starts this year. He was up against the pirates. Nathan Avaldi facing the Angels seven innings of three-run ball with nine strikeouts and 17 swinging strikes for him.

Christian Javier, a solid start, you know, six shutout innings, but only two strikeouts. I thought that was kind of interesting. And McKenzie Gore, a bounce back outing, five and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts at the Houston Astros. Gore, Javier, Avaldi, Stroman, Tyler Wells, anything there. Gores a two-star pitcher next week as well, and I'd be, I think I'd pretty much start him. Yeah, Javier has been pretty underwhelming this year, I have to say.

I've been, I thought he was the pitcher. I thought he was the non-Ace who had the best chance of emerging as an ace. And while he hasn't so much hurt you, it's just been like the strikeouts, the swinging strikes, especially recently. It's all just been a little underwhelming. I don't know what more to say about it than that. I don't think you're doing anything with him based on that, but it's, you know, I'll just point it out. It's been a little underwhelming.

Yeah, the strikeouts in particular, but still a 2.90 array and a 1.04 whip. The ratios have been really good, but yeah, we were talking about Javier like a Spencer Strider light in terms of the strikeouts and just hasn't really been there this season. Quick note on Sunny Gray.

He allowed two runs over four innings pitched. That's now two starts in a row, where he was held under 80 pitches. Not really sure why the twins are kind of limiting him right now. But over his last six starts, he has a 3.82 ERA and a 157 whip. I noticed that you lowered Sunny Gray in your pitcher ranking, Scott. And do you think it's possible where somebody could look at the overall numbers

and you could still kind of sell high on Sunny Gray? What do you think? Yeah, I don't really, I talked about this earlier this year that I don't know how the average fantasy player really approaches that. Do they more look at the game log and say, oh, well, look at what he's been doing recently. I'm going to value him mostly on that, or do they look at the overall stat line and value him mostly on that? And I don't really know. I know, I mean, my process, I obviously take things on a day-to-day basis and review the most recent stuff that's happening.

So I would tend to value the more recent work. But I don't know that the average player does that. No idea. I think Sunny Gray obviously got off to a very encouraging start, and he's kind of looked more like Sunny Gray recently, and the biggest issue is that he just doesn't pitch deep into games with great consistency. This was, I think, his second six-inning start. No, he went four.

I'm sorry. He's had two six-inning starts in his last eight, which is a problem. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Some quick bullpen updates for the Orioles. Felix Batista recorded the final four outs for his 18th save. For the Phillies, Craig Kimbrel pitched a clean ninth inning for his 10th save. The day before, Kimbril pitched in the ninth with the game tied. And then it was Jose Alvarado who pitched in the 10th inning and actually picked up the save for the Phillies.

For the Angels, Carlos Estevez started the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He walked three batters without recording an out. and he was pulled for Jacob Webb who picked up his first save of the season. For the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan pitched in the eighth with the game tied, facing 9-1 and 2 in the Astros lineup. He struck out three.

Hunter Harvey did get the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up two hits and a run. He took his fifth blown save. And then Carl Edwards would eventually pick up the save in extra innings. I think this is two straight-blown saves for Hunter Harvey, Scott.

Do you think we're closer to Kyle Finnegan getting the closer roll back or is just just a mess? I think it's a mess. I mean, they did talk before the season about treating then again more as like a fireman like just high leverage role

no matter what inning it is. And so maybe that's all that's going on here more than a transition to Hunter Harvey is the closer, though it does seem like Harvey's gotten the majority of the chances. It's hard to tell because the chances are only so frequent for the nationals.

For the Astros on the other side of that game, Ryan Presley got the ninth with the game tied, and he gave up a solo home run to Cabot Ruiz and was in line for the loss until, again, Hunter Harvey blew it. You know, Ryan Presley, it seems like he's been off the season, 3.49 ERA. It's higher than last year, but if you look at the swinging strike rate

and all the ERA estimators, Ryan Presley is just as good as he was last season. So I was actually surprised to see that when I looked a little bit further into him For the Guardians, a manual Class A recorded the final four outs for his 21st save to stream or not to stream Let's start with Friday and Oh yeah, this was a mess yesterday because there were There's like a lot of kind of interesting names here. None of them are like amazing But like Kyle Hendricks against the Orioles kind of interesting Tanner how

versus the Yankees with no Aaron Judge. You need nerves of steel to actually start any of these guys, I feel like. But I think my favorite might be Julio Tehran against the Pirates. And my second favorite might be Taiwan Walker at Oakland with how he's looked recently.

I like that too. Okay. And then I'll put Tanner Halk on the list against the Yankees and, you know, Kyle Hendrix against the Orioles as well. On Saturday, We've got Braxton Garrett at the Nationals. I think that one's pretty good. Griffin Canning at the Royals.

I like that one too. And Brian Beow against the Yankees. I like those three. Garrett, Canning, and Beo. I would rank them Bayo, Garrett, and Canning. But I agree with the three. On Sunday. Louis Varland up against the Tigers.

We get behind that one. I was going against the Tigers next week, too. Wow. A little sneak peek. Yeah. And not really anybody else that I like here. I know Dean Kramer at the Cubs. It's okay, I guess. Varland may be pitching for his job here. Maybe I shouldn't have him as a sleeper pitcher for next week because Kenta Maeda is ramping up. I don't know. But anyway, for Sunday, beyond Varland. I don't like any of them. Yeah, me neither.

Again, the only other one is maybe is Dean Kramer, but don't really love that one either. For Scott, 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 next week.

Bye-bye.