Fantasy Baseball Today - Is Zack Wheeler Broken? 3 Pitcher Questions & Hitter Fun Facts! (8/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Is Zack Wheeler broken (2:20)? ... Cal Raleigh FINALLY did something (9:35). ... Daylen Lile had a monster game (14:40). ... News (19:27): Bryan Woo should start this Wednesday. ... I have questions regarding Braxton Ashcraft, Chase Burns and Kevin Gausman (35:19). ... Where did this Zebby Matthews start come from (42:33)? ... Luke Keaschall is hot (52:07)! ... Did you realize (1:00:05)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:08:13).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. And first pitch, reaching. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris.

Hello, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, August 25th. I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, is Zach Wheeler Broken? is Cal Raleigh back. I have hitter fun facts, three pitcher questions, and much more. Let's jump in.

All right, let's just start off with Zach Wheeler, man, because this is another pitcher. I mean, if we give all the attention to Paul Skeen's, we've got to give some attention

here to Zach Wheeler, who kind of looks like he is broken right now. Something is wrong with Zach Wheeler because he got destroyed in Seattle. Four plus innings, nine hits, eight runs,

five walk, four homers allowed in this one. Still had a bunch of whiffs. That wasn't an issue. 15 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. But man, nine hard hits in this one, 95.1 average exit velocity against.

I mean, the amount of hard hits with the walks and just the lack of strike throwing here. And this all kind of stemmed back from that start on July 27th, where his fastball velocity, He was way down in that one. It was like 93.5 miles per hour.

He's averaging 95.2 on the season. So not way down, but down. It was down almost two miles per hour. The velocity has come back since, but Zach Wheeler has not. He is completely lost. So in his last six starts, 851, ERA, 193 whip.

16 walks in 24 and a third, eight homers allowed. So I will search for some quotes while you give your opinion here, Chris. but what is wrong with Zach Wheeler right now? I don't know. I mean, this is one of those situations where he's been so bad

since that weird velocity start that you almost have to assume he isn't healthy and it's not an unfair assumption given that he had thoracic outlet surgery this time, basically this time a year ago. So it wouldn't be shocking if there was some kind of injury going on here.

Now, the thing that makes that tough is that has velocity, like you said, has been fine. And if you look into the stuff plus metric on fan graphs, that pretty much looks the same in the course of the past five starts. It's actually, I believe, gone up. It was 105. It's 105 for the season. I think it's 107 over the past six starts, which is weird. 100 is average on this scale, by the way. But one thing that you'll see pretty regularly is, I think Bryce Miller is a good example, where the stuff still looks okay. I think his velocity was down a little more than Wheeler's, but the stuff still looked okay. The stuff certainly didn't scream, hey, this guy's not healthy,

but we did learn that he's been dealing with an injury that he has, that has not prevented him from pitching, but it has prevented him from pitching well. And when you dig into some of the numbers with Wheeler. You mentioned the 16 walks in his past six starts. He had 22 in his first 16 starts for comparison. And if you look at the stuff plus metric on fan graphs, they also have something called location plus, which is a proxy for command, I suppose, because we don't know what pitchers are actually trying to do. We only know where the ball is going. And he was at a 108 location plus through July 21st, which would be tied for the six best mark among starters. In the five starts entering Mondays, he was down to a 98, which would be a bottom 10 mark

among all starters. Now, if you look at that leaderboard, you'll see Dylan Cis and Cade Cavali and Christopher Sanchez and Nolan McLean all at 98 or worse. So it's not like pitchers can't be good without good control. Dylan C's whole career is a testament to the ability to be good without good control. But Wheeler has always had exceptional command, at least in the second half of his career when he's emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball. And so Dylan Seas can make that work.

Maybe Zach Wheeler can't. And we don't have the metrics for this start yet, but I mean, you look at the pitch locations, you look at the results he gave up, five walks and four innings, a lot of hard contact, a lot of four seamers, cutters, and splitters catching too much of the zone. I can't imagine that mark's going to be any better here.

So it certainly looks like it's a command issue for Zach Wheeler. The problem is, from our perspective, is what's causing that? Is it just sometimes guys have bad months? It might just be that. It also might be he's not healthy. And he's pitching through something and it's not enough to keep him off the mound, but it's enough to impact his performance. It's possible that he's just hit a wall coming off surgery.

It's possible that he's permanently hit a wall. All of these things are possible. I think the one thing you can say for sure is I don't see how you can start him right now because his next matchup on Sunday is at the Angels. That's a great matchup. If that one goes poorly, I mean, there's no way you can use him after that. At Seattle is about as good a matchup as you're going to get. He was bad against the Marlins a couple of starts ago.

He was bad against the Cardinals. I think he had a bad start against the, who was it, the Blue Jays who aren't a particularly good lineup. So I don't think you can look at the matchup coming up and say, yeah, I know he's been bad, but I'm just going to trust him there either way

because he has struggled against beatable matchups too. This has not been a particularly difficult stretch of the schedule for him. he's had the Marlins, the Orioles, the Blue Jays, the Cardinals, the Marlins, and then the Mariners in Seattle. Who's the toughest matchup out of those? The Orioles? That's not a good lineup. It's supposed to be, but it's not. It's middle of the pack. Yeah.

Look, your point is valid, and I know that we're kind of speculating that he could be battling something. Everything post-game, like Zach Wheeler has reiterated multiple times, that he feels healthy, his body feels good, and that's, quote, the most frustrating part. for Zach Wheeler. There was another quote here. It's really frustrating leading off the game and I walk the guy and then it tumbles into a big inning for them. I hate walking guys.

It's really frustrating. All around, it's frustrating. Just the whole situation. Wheeler said he's perfectly fine and healthy. So I'm not really sure. I mean, it could be just one of those things like, yeah, he's in his mid to upper 30s and maybe he's just going through a bout here

where he's struggling to locate. I mean, if you rewatch some of these home runs that he gave up. It was like fastballs, middle, middle, or like hanging splitters. So it's like, yeah, clearly he's got an issue with command and getting knocked around right now. So we'll have to see if anything else comes out.

But yeah, the last six starts just really, really bad here for Zach Wheeler. You're probably, if you're playing a weekly lineup league, you're locked in for the two-star week. But unless we see like a really dominant start on Sunday, I think we probably lean towards benching him for the next couple of times out. Until we see him look more like Zach Wheeler,

once again. Somebody who did a lot of that damage off of them, Chris, was Cal Raleigh. My gosh, we needed a game like this. Absolutely. Here's a wild thing. Cal Raleigh had 60, was it

62 homers last season? No, 60. Sounds whatever the number was. Something like that. It was a whole bunch of them. This was the first three homer game of Cal Raleigh's career. Wow. Isn't that something? That is funny.

He went three for three with three homers. And this was one that when I looked at the game log, because following along, but not keeping track, my sense had been that he'd been playing better lately. And then you actually look at the game log, and this was Kyle Raleigh's first multi-hit game. Oh gosh, since July 7th.

It is August 25th. by the way. It's August 25th. That's a long time to go without multiple hits in a game. He has had a couple of homers in the past like eight games. The swings have worked a little bit better as of late. Yeah, but he was hitting 136 in the month of August before today. Three homers.

Strike a rate, not as bad as it could be, I suppose. 19 and 72 played appearances, but boy, there haven't been a ton of signs of life lately. the rolling expected wobo over the past 50 plate appearances, 291, go back to 100 plate appearances. 318, that's a little better, but still pretty bad would be the worst mark of Cowrally's career outside of this season. So hopefully this is the start of him turning it around.

It would be really nice to at least get one good month out of Cowrally where at least we can say, okay, 2025 is not going to happen again. but hey, he can get back to being who he was in 2024, which was a good but not elite fantasy catcher. Right now, I don't think you can have a lot of confidence in that. But I hope this is a sign of him turning it around. I don't have a lot of confidence in that, though. Yeah.

I'm trying to dig into some of the underlying stuff to see, like the bat speed is still there for him this season. The strikeouts are up. The quality of contact is down across the board. his expected Wobah on contact is down from 470 to 360. That was the number entering today, so it's going to go up after hitting

three home runs, obviously, but I mean, even that, it's down over 100 points year over year. I still just go back to that oblique injury that I think very reasonably could have just completely wrecked his season. I think also perhaps just the pressure to kind of live up to

what he did last year as well. Just all of those things combined. I'm making excuses for the guy, but that's what you need to do. when you have a historically bad season like this for Cal Raleigh. So look, it's already a lost season at this point. But I agree with you. If we could just see him finish strong, give us something to buy into heading into next season.

That would be, that would be very welcome. Let's go a strong finish here from Big Dumpa. We got basically one month exactly left. Yeah, the season ends like September 27th, I think. September 27th, the last day of the season. So let's get one month of him hitting 250 with, I don't know, let's get eight home runs the rest of the way.

And I'll feel at least okay about drafting him as a starter next season. But, boy, that's going to be 140 spot drop in ADP probably. He was like top 20 coming into the season. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we can look it up, but I wonder what the ADP was in previous season. seasons. Yeah. I couldn't, you know, if you look at my historical teams on NFBC, let's see. I can pull it up real quick. 24, Cal Raleigh was 134. So yeah, I mean like 150. Yeah, I don't think it will make much sense to drop him much further than he was entering 2025.

You know, and that was, okay, well, that was 78. That's probably too high. But where he was entering 24, around 135, 140, without having done any ranking whatsoever. I will not be doing that for another month or so. That feels right for me. And I will probably be much more likely to draft Cowrally next season than I was coming into this season, where I don't think I drafted him at all. You know, I got some things right this year, got many things wrong. But one of the things I did get right was I had Cal Raleigh in the bus column.

So I think busts 1.0. It was really just, I was never going to pay that price tag coming off the career year there for Cal Raleigh. But hopefully he does finish strong. I want to give a shout out here to Dail and Lyle, who also had himself a monster game, 3 for 5 with a sock into shoe, his 16th homer, his 13th steel,

5 RBI in this game. He had slowed down quite a bit his previous 42 games before this. He was hitting just 206, still had 5 homers and 4 steals during that spend, 600 OPS on the nose, and still hitting the ball. decently hard, 90.2 average EV.

The expected stats were a little bit better, so it seems like perhaps Dalyle was a little bit unlucky since the start of July here. But he's had an overall solid season, 246, 16 homers. Counting stats are pretty good. 66 runs, 71 RBI, 13 steals, 705 OPS. I think...

It's the batting average. We kind of know, like, what he is. I kind of just feel like he's a higher floor. He's settling into this, like, 20, 15. higher floor kind of player, but I don't really think we're ever going to get a big upside here from from Dylan Lyle.

Yeah, he's struggled against lefties. The batting average has been really bad. He's still like a top 120 player overall this season. Part of that is just he hasn't gotten hurt. Yeah, those counting stats helps. Yeah, but like we're going to end up with probably a 20 home or 15 steel season from him.

And if he was hitting 275 instead of 245, I think you'd feel a lot better about everything. But, you know, he's an okay fourth or fifth outfielder, but probably not much more than that, I think. Yeah, wanted to see where he ranked in terms of fantasy points per game on the season. Dale and Lyle is at 2.6, so that's kind of mid. Yeah, that's probably not a starting caliber player in a points league. If you look at the fantasy, the Fangraphs player raider,

He is the 105th overall player in 12-team Roto slash category leagues this season. That sounds right. Yeah, I think his ADP was like 200, though, so he has provided some profit. Yeah, it's been a nice value, just not an impactful player. Yeah. And Dale and Lyle is still 83% roster on CBS, 67% on Yahoo. I think both of those numbers are fine for Dale and Lyle. Before we hit our first break, just a reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter.

I mean, if you haven't already, there's only a month left in the Z. season, but you can get all of Chris's work. That's true. Here we go. It's crunch time. It's playoffs and head-to-head leagues. It's, uh, you know, your, your final month. You're trying to chase down first place in a roto league. You can scan that QR code if you're watching on YouTube or head to CBSports.com slash newsletters and you can get all of Chris's work delivered right to your inbox for free. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. And Brian, who, told reporters on Monday that he is 100% confident that he will make his scheduled start against the Phillies on

Wednesday. He has not pitched since August 16th because of shoulder sorenness. Chris, it's too late to tell people now because the Mariners have already played. But would you have started Brian Wu this week? One start against the Phillies in Seattle. Obviously, he's much better at home. But we haven't seen a pitch in like 10 days or so. I would have tried to avoid it. I think that's what I said on yesterday's podcast. Anytime you're, I mean, he's been so up and down this season. Anytime you have that kind of a long layoff with an injury,

I think there's a chance for Rust. He could dominate. He's a really good pitcher, but he hasn't been that guy more often, or as often as not this season, although I guess at home it's more often than not. Yep, yep. I had a

what my home league head to head points playoffs is a two week scoring period I opted to start Tyler Malley over Brian Wu I know Brian Wu's

ceiling is much higher but just the yeah I don't know just the indecision the kind of of I don't know questionable nature of all of it

and dealing with the shoulder of all things for a pitcher I opted to play it safe there Tyler Malley has been a pretty high floor the past couple weeks too yeah you're probably not going to get nothing from Tyler Malley

and there's a chance you might get nothing from Brian Wu. So that's reasonable, yeah. CJ Abrams returned to the lineup after missing four straight with a sprain left ankle, and I guess that ankle is fine because he stole two bases. So CJ Abrams continues his massive breakout season. James Wood has extended his flat ground throwing to 120 feet and has resumed hitting off a T. He's been out since August 3rd with an oblique strain. Hopefully we can get him back early September, get one final month out of

James Wood and make sure he finishes strong as well. Give us that confidence to make him a first round pick for next season. Cotel Marte is expected to be activated next Monday. So I believe that would be a minimum stay on the IL, dealing with that knee soreness. But hopefully that is the case. Cotel Marte expected back next week. Joe Ryan will throw a live bullpen of one inning on Wednesday.

He's slowly building up. He's dealing with this glute strain, but we're kind of running out of time here. would be nice to get Joe Ryan back for a couple starts as well. Pete Fairbanks left Monday's game with nerve irritation in his right hand. I know this is something he's dealt with for a while. I think he dealt with this earlier to the season. He went on the IL.

He went on the IL with that exact injury, right? So assuming he does go on the IL, Chris, who do you think would be next up in the Marlins bullpen? I believe the Marlins got three saves the last time Pete Fairbanks was on the IL. It was three different players who got the saves. So they would not have a closer and, Never will ever again. If you have to pick one, I think it would be Calvin Foshe.

But because I'm pretty sure of the three guys who got saves last time, Tyler Phillips is in the bullpen or in the rotation. And I can't even remember the lefty reliever who got the other save. So yeah, I think it's more likely to be Foshae than not. But it's not like he pitches the eighth inning every time out. He had a recent outing where he pitched in the sixth. So I don't think the Marlins, they've had a lot of faith in P. Fairbanks, despite him being very bad this season. But I don't think, like, Calvin Foshe is going to step into that role and be used exactly the same.

Yeah. Josh Echnice pitched the eighth inning here on Monday. I know Calvin Fosha had pitched three days in a row. So they weren't going to use him. And Echnis has a one. 169 ERA in the season. He also has 11 strikeouts to seven walks over 16 innings and a 6.5% swinging strike rate. It wouldn't totally stun me if they went to Victor Vodnik. But he hasn't been great since getting there. Five strikeouts to five walks.

I know he's got closer stuff, but I'm not sure he's all that good. Yeah, likely a messy situation there, but I do agree. I think Fochet would be the first opportunity, I guess, for the Marlins. Riley Green took part in conditioning work at Comerica Park on Monday. He went on the IL with a left hamstring strain on August 12th. Apparently, Bryce Miller has dealt with a minor right-lat injury since July 24th

and definitely could explain why he's been so bad. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if he goes on the IL, that he skip a start or two. Obviously, he's just been so. so terrible. So that would make some sense there for Bryce Miller. But they're dealing with other injuries, you know, Brian Wu,

all that stuff that was going on. Willie Adomas was placed in the aisle with a left elbow sprain. Chase the water was scratched from the lineup due to left hamstring tightness. That one came down pretty late. So hopefully you saw that and were able to. That was right before lineups came out. Yeah. Yeah.

If you're able to get it. The lineups locked. Get him out of your lineup. There is a chance that he returns in the next couple of days. And he's been really good since returning from that injury in mid-June, late June. But yeah, we just don't know if he's going to land on the aisle or not. Again, that's chase the water with a hamstring. Bryce Eldridge was placed on the bereavement list and we'll miss the next three games.

Trevor's story could be activated during this current series against the Marlins. He is 40% rostered. Chris, what is your interest level in Trevor's story? Kael and Hal Hano are both rostered in fewer leagues than Trevor's story. so my interest level is not particularly high. He was awesome last year. Maybe he can get back to that, but he showed very little before the injury.

So I would prioritize him below Kael and Cole Pepper and on Hal Hano. You know, I saw the Red Sox lineup today, and I saw who they were throwing out there at shortstop and second base. It was Nick Sogarde at shortstop, and it was Anthony Siegler at second base. So would be pretty awesome if they just go like Trevor Story and call up Franklin Arias. That would just be really, really cool. I don't know if they're going to do it, but Arias has been really good since getting promoted to AAA.

It would be fun. And obviously, would link it out that Red Sox lineup quite a bit. They've been comfortable with a lot of zeros in their lineup all season, and it's worked out. So, I mean, their pitching is money. Yeah, I think story's going to play every day. I don't think we're going to see Arias. I hope so. I hope I'm wrong, but the opportunity has been there all along

and they haven't gone to him. That's fair. Luis Arise, Bryson Stott, and Alec Bohm all return to the lineup Monday after missing Sunday with various injuries. Shea Langaleers has begun hitting and throwing progressions. He is four weeks removed from undergoing a meniscus repair in his right knee.

And the assumption is that he would not return this season if he had surgery, which he did. So the fact that he's, you know, actually making some progress. Yeah, we could get a couple of weeks out of Shea Langaleers down the stretch. It's concerning, though, because that would mean he didn't have the meniscus repaired, which you very rarely see. He had some kind of surgery, though, didn't he?

Yeah, no, no, no. So I think we talked about this when he had the surgery. They reported it as a meniscus repair, but a meniscus repair generally is like a six-month injury. I think four to six months and the other options are they either remove the meniscus or they shave down the part of the meniscus that is injured and both have long-term issues

and so that's a little concerning that this timetable is what it is just because he's a catcher you would think they would prioritize the long term with little to play for the rest of the way so I don't love to hear that just from what I understand about meniscus injuries.

All right. Max Meyer has yet to be cleared to resume a throwing program, and we are up against it. There's only a month left, so I really don't know if we're going to be able to see Max Meyer return as a starting pitcher this season. Kyle Stowers was reinstated from the IL, and he was back in the lineup against the left-handed pitcher on Monday. Connolly early threw a 25-pitch bullpen on Saturday. He's working his way back from left forearm tightness. Reminder. He is now on the Nationals.

He went there in the Curtis Meals. trade. So my guess is they're trying to, they won't rush him back, but if they can get him back for a couple of starts, a couple innings just to see him healthy heading into the offseason, I'm sure that's what everybody would want that's involved.

But we'll see if Connolly Early can make it back. Joe Musgrove will make his next rehab start at AAA on Thursday. Nick Povetta will resume his rehab assignment at single A at some point this week. So getting closer to some reinforcements here for the Padres.

is Joe Musgrove, someone that we do have decent amount of interest in and fantasy. If he can, let's say, make a start the first week of September, you could get like three or four starts at a Joe Musgrove. Colt Emerson will undergo season ending left wrist surgery on Wednesday.

He is a name to remember, like post-hypes sleeper. I just feel like everyone's going to forget about Colts Emerson next season. He's still very young. He either just turned 21 or he hasn't turned 21. yet. So that will be a name definitely. I know he was very bad in his time in the majors, but, hey, Cole Young was very bad last year too, and he's having a nice season.

And Colt Emerson, by all accounts, was the better prospects. So, yeah, he just turned 21. Let's not bury Colt Emerson. That's still a very exciting player. And they have confidence in him. They gave him that contract extension. I believe at the time, it was the largest contract extension for a player yet to debut. I think there have been like three other guys since then. I think Connor Griffin got one after that too. I don't know, around that time. But yeah, look, the Mariners have confidence.

I still think we'll have a player there in Colt Emerson. Michael Soroka, who went on the aisle this weekend with apparently it's dead arm. It was originally like a shoulder injury. He expects to return in the minimum 15 days. Andy Rodriguez, who's dealing with a hip injury, will take a little bit longer to return from this injury. and that quote, surgery is on the table. That's a bummer.

You don't like that for his potential 2027 value. He looks like a good player, but he just has not been able to stay healthy. On the other hand, Rafael Flores taking advantage of his opportunity. He had another good game today, I believe. So I think he had a couple more hits today. Two for four with a run and with a walk and RBI in that game. Yeah, he's been very productive. I know he had a rough weekend against the Dodgers,

but he also felt he faced like Blake Snell and Jabamodo, you know, so he was facing awesome pitchers, but he was really good before that. And the numbers in the minors this year were bad, but last year they were very good for Flores. And he came over in that David Bednar trade. So, you know, all of a sudden the pirates have interesting catchers is popping up left and right.

The Giants optioned tugboat, Matt Wilkinson, back to AAA. Justin Steele is hoping to start a rehab assignment after throwing two more live bullpens and he will work out of the bullpen once he returns but he is a name to remember for 2027. The Mariners stated Monday that Brendan Donovan's concussion symptoms are starting to improve and I do have some prospect notes here.

Twins' top prospect Walker Jenkins had another massive game on Sunday going three for three with two walks, two homers and a stolen base at AAA. he is destroying August. He's got to be up this weekend. He looks ready. I'm just not sure what the twins' plans are here.

I saw somebody was breaking it down where there's a way for them to, like if they just keep him down all season, they have more control. I forgot what it was like in case of the lockout next year, he could lose like another year of control. Yeah. So if the player's clock starts

and there is a lockout, they would still get credit for. So if they want to play that card, they could just choose to keep him down. I don't, I don't know. They're still alive, I believe technically.

I think the twins are pretty close. The problem is there's not like an obvious hole for them. Trevor Larnack's not great, but he's not such a disaster that you have to get him out of the line. They're kind of don't have an obvious spot for him. And that might be the biggest thing. But, yeah, Jenkins, I believe he had never had a multi-homer game.

He has three in, like, the past 15 games or something. Yeah, I mean, they could. Oh, they could. They could call them up and just. Yeah, they absolutely could and just bench Trevor Larnack. Yeah, they could get rid of Larnick, man. Move Ler, Luke Heschel back to saying, like, there are ways they could do it. But it's not, it's not like they have.

a massive hole in their lineup, even though what he's doing right now. And it's also kind of, it's kind of how I feel about any good pitching prospect. Like, don't waste bullets on games that don't matter. Walker Jenkins has a lot of trouble staying healthy throughout his career. He's healthy right now. You might as well play him, you know? The twins are two games out of a wild ride spot right now. So they're right there.

They're pretty close. And Trevor Larnick in August, 151 batting every. 475 OPS 30 WRC plus. Would be a likely improvement over that. Yes. So yes, Walker Jenkins is probably the top hitting prospect to roster. No, he's probably just a top prospect to stash now that Kate Anderson's up. So yeah, if you, we could get like one month out of Walker Jenkins.

I would stash him. A's top prospect, Leo DeVries, was placed in the IL at AA while he recovers from a sword-right shoulder. and White Sox prospect, Caleb Bonimer, will get some starts in center field later this week at AA. To this point in his career, he's only played shortstop and third base, but the White Sox are pretty loaded at both of those positions. And Bonhamer is a good prospect. 20 years old, he's hit 33 homers with 16 steals

in 114 games between High A and AA this year, and probably someone we see at some point next season. So just a name to be on your radar, that is Caleb Bonimer. Last item here, the Astros NGELA. Dana Brown have mutually agreed to part ways. And then there were differing reports about their manager whose name is escaping. Joe Espada.

Joe Espada. There was one report that he would not be back after the season. And then... Yeah, his contract's up at the end of the season. All right. So, and then whatever. The other report was that him and the Ashros have had no conversation. What's his name?

Jim Crane is taking over baseball ops, which is... As the owner? Yeah, never, never a good sign, I think. Yeah. Presumably it'll be a short-term thing, but yeah. Yes. All right, let's go over to three pitcher questions. And first up, I have Braxton Ashcraft who turned in a quality start at the Padres.

Six innings, one run, only two strikeouts. He also had 11 swinging strikes on 91 pitches, so it feels like he deserved more than two strikeouts here. And continues to emphasize that sinker, which I think has really helped him get back on track. The last three starts, 117, ERA, point. 6-1 whip. The strikeouts, not so much. 16Ks to two walks, over 23 innings,

but the ground ball rate back over 50% during that stretch. So is he back? Braxton Ashcraft. Define the question further. Is he back to being a SP3, set it and forget it in your lineup? Probably.

But that's different than back to what he was through the first three months of the season when he looked like, Like a top 20 starting pitcher in fantasy. I don't think with the strike IRA where it is, he can be that impactful. But the control has been excellent lately. He has a 191 ERA in the month of August.

He certainly looks like he's back on track. I think you can feel pretty good about starting him, even if you shouldn't necessarily expect him to be dominant. Let's talk about Chase Burns, who had a terrible start here at the John. and against that giant's lineup, man. If you look up and down that giant's lineup, how did this happen? It's Raphael Devers and a bunch of guys.

Yeah, man. Three and two-thirds innings, nine hits, five runs here. Still had nine swinging strikes on 64 pitches. That is a 14% swinging strike rate. But some hard contact here, eight hard hits allowed. And I just wonder if he's starting to wear down a little bit. He's up to 139 and two-thirds innings. Last year it was 111 total innings,

and he throws really hard, obviously. He's giving up five earned runs and two of his last four outings. So what do you think, Chris? Do you think Chase Burns is starting to wear down a little bit here? Yeah, it's two of his last four, three of his last six. Well, I guess one of them was,

was that one earned run, but it was five runs. Okay. And he gave up a homer in that outing too. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there are still a lot going right. Like, he still has 36 strikeouts in 27 innings in the month of August. But, yeah,

It's possible he's starting to run out of steam a little bit. It's only been two starts. Well, let's go back to the start of July. Only three starts since the start of July with more than five and a third innings pitched. So it's been a lot of shorter outings. Yeah, it's possible he's running out of steam. And obviously, he's about 28 innings ahead of where he was last year. We've worried that the Reds were going to shut him down at some point.

I don't know if it's going to be a hard shutdown like next week or anything, but maybe it's a situation where he makes three more short, you know, five-inning starts and then, you know, doesn't make his last start or two. I would almost rather them just shut him down or tell us that they're doing that so that we don't start. It makes it easier for us, yeah. They haven't given us any indication they're going to do that. There's been no reporting as far as I know. There's been no, yeah.

It would make sense, though. Like, they're not playing for anything. this point. Yeah, so that would not surprise me, but I don't think it's something you can count on. You certainly can't just drop Chase Burns right now. But I think you should certainly lower your expectations for him for the final month. And the last name I have here is Kevin Gosman,

who had a big bounce back at the debacks, seven shutout innings with six strikeouts to one walk, but only had six swinging strikes here on 94 pitches. Obviously, it's a good bounce back. he did not complete five innings in either of his previous two starts where he allowed nine earned runs over nine innings pitched. Chris, what did Kevin Gosman do differently here? And I mean, do you buy this bounce back start, I guess? Well, it was funny because when he got to the Cubs, he was throwing his splitter more. And then in this start, he did the opposite. And it was the fourseamer that carried him. But it wasn't because the fourseamer was missing a ton of bats. It was actually quite the opposite. He only was. He had two whiffs. He just got a ton of called strikes. 24 of them, in fact.

I believe I saw that was the highest of his career on his four-seamer. That is among the highest numbers I've seen on a pitch all season long. 24 called strikes for Kevin Gosman's four-seeing fastball. Yeah, so that, you know, maybe there's something about the matchup, and, you know, the Cubs saw something in the scouting report that said that, or maybe it was just he had a good feel for it, and it was a one-start thing. I do not think throwing 65% four-seemers is that. the answer for Kevin Gosman moving forward.

It was nice to see it work in this start. And it was nice to see him stem the bleeding, but I don't think this fundamentally changes how I think about Kevin Gosman. And it was good to see for the first start of a two-star week, because I had to imagine whoever is still rostering Kevin Gosman at this point, probably threw him out there with the two starts. Although I wouldn't have blamed you if you benched him because of how he was pitching,

obviously. And he just had this great start, but did it in an unconventional way for him. So 95% rostered, 84% started. A lot of people still went with Kevin Gosman, and it paid off in this first star. We'll see if he can carry it over into this second start as well. Let's take our final break.

Winnery return. I've got some WaverWire names from Monday, and I've got some hitter fun facts. We'll get to all that right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's run through some Waverwire options from Monday's action. and on the pitching side, Zebi Matthews, great outing at the athletics. Where did this come from?

It's like, what is going on here? I understand the athletics are missing a lot of guys in their lineup, and they are prone to striking out. But typically a really tough place to pitch. Seven innings of one-run ball, seven strikeouts to one walk, 23 swinging strikes here on 105 pitches, eight of those on the slider. He had three or more whiffs on all six of his pitches,

which is wild. He had everything working. He has looked better as of late. Last six starts, 363, ERA 121 whip. He is home against the White Sox this weekend, and then it looks like at the White Sox again next week. Chris, what did Debbie Matthews do here? And are you buying it at all?

Yeah, two things, one, that commercial you just played, for those of you watching on YouTube, it's a CBS NFL Sunday with Mr. Blue Sky, by Electric Lygo Orchestra. If that's going to be part of the rotation moving forward, I love it. It was a good commercial. That song is going to be stuck in my head every night before I fall asleep, if that's going to be every night,

which not complaining. It's just going to be a part of my life now. As far as Debbie Matthews, my write-up for tomorrow's newsletter starts with, whoa, where did that come from? So his previous career high in WIFs was 18. He had 23 in this one. Like you said, everything was working.

He was throwing the curve ball, I believe, with a little more velocity. It was the opposite. It was the opposite. The curve was slower, the change up, and four seamer were harder. I don't know. I think it's probably just, hey, sometimes guys get locked in against the right matchup. He survived a matchup in Sacramento. I think we've seen enough.

I know it's been three good starts in a row now, but the previews, to I think we're four strikeouts and five innings each. I don't think we can really draw much from this one. Good start. Let's see if he can build on it. Maybe he figured something out, but

I need to see a lot more than just one good start from Zebby Matthews before I'm willing to change my mind on him. Yeah, I think it's just a deeper name still for now. And the problem with it is that he faces the White Sox this weekend and then he faces him again next

week. So typically I don't like using pitchers against the same matchup two times out in a row unless it's like a really well-established pitcher. And the White Sox are pretty good against right-handed pitching. So great start here, but I do agree. I'm not really rushing out to go and add Zibby Matthews.

George Clausen, someone that I was kind of raving about a little bit after his previous two starts. He was just okay here against the Guardians. Five and a third, six hits, three runs, two of those earned, three walks, three strikeouts. He used a slider a lot more in this one,

46% usage, and it had mixed results. He did get six whiffs, but also gave up some hard contact. I think he might have an awesome slider. I just don't really know if he has anything else in his arsenal, and his control is kind of, I

don't know. Bad. Inconsistent, let's call it. It might just be bad, but yeah, 31% rostered. And now the angels are using a six-man rotation, so that kind of limits his upside as well. certainly was very bad in his minor league career. There's basically been no evidence of George Cawson being able to throw strikes consistently.

So I don't really see it. I agree with your assessment, though. I think the slider's really good. I'm just not sure there's anything else here. He does have a little bit of that, like, Jacob Lopez funkiness to him, but I'm not sure it works as well from a righty. So I'm not, I don't really see it with George. class and I know you're not alone in being pretty excited about him. He does throw pretty hard, but I think it's kind of slider or bust for him. Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not really in.

I think his changeup might be okay. It had pretty good results in the miners, but just hasn't really thrown it much in the majors so far. Entering this start, it was 19% usage. Yeah, 335X well, but 24% whiffra. Like, yeah, I don't know. Okay, but yeah. I don't know. We need to see more. If you picked up George Claus, and I think you could probably pass him up for, or swap him out for someone who might have equal or more upside than him.

Kumar Rocker, solid outing here at the White Sox, five and two-thirds innings, two runs, eight strikeouts to three walks, 14 whiffs on 93 pitches. He's another one, Chris. Like, his slider, dominant. Ten wifts, ten of his 14 wifts. I just don't really think that he has anything else.

So not really interested in Kumar Rock. What do you think? Yeah, we've seen some really good starts from him. He hasn't really shown the ability to do it consistently. And one thing I will say about Kumar Rocker that I do appreciate him, that I think is a point in his favor as a pitcher is he is willing to try stuff out. He had been throwing his sinker a lot more the past three starts. he's had a few stretches where he's really leaned on the cutter,

although he's gone away from that lately. I think that speaks to a work ethic and a willingness to experiment and try to figure it out. But I just, yeah, I don't really think anything but the slider is good enough. And I'm not sure that's enough to make it all work. So, you know, like he's in a stretch right now where he's getting about a strikeout per inning, his control has been really bad in the month of August, 13 walks and 24 strikeouts.

So it's just, I don't have a lot of faith in him ever really putting it all together all at once. Have one name here I want to ask about as a potential drop. And I just, there's not much left in the season. Framber Valdez, man, it just looks like he might be cooked, at least for this year.

Technically turned in a quality start, but he was not good against the raise. Six innings, four runs, three of those earned. Two walks to zero strikeouts. Zero. Swinging strikes on 84 pitches. 10 hard hits allowed in this game as well.

He's given up four plus runs in three straight. He's 92% rostered. I just think that's too high at this point, Chris. Drop him for Jacob Lopez, Andrew Painter. Anyone that you could actually see using confidently in your lineup, I would drop for Ambervold at this at this point. What's wild is it's not like the zero whiffs was because they weren't swinging.

He had 41 swings in this game and zero whiffs. That is wild. By comparison, Jurassic Mason on the other side had 51 swings with 12 whiffs. I don't have a good explanation for what's gone wrong with Framber Faldez. The one thing I will say is we know he's been pretty open about struggling with, I don't know if it's like anxiety, but just he's he's talked about like having a mental health coach with when he was with the Astros. And that was a big part of him figuring it out. You know, new situation, extended free agency, big contract.

You know, maybe there's just he's just having trouble adjusting and it'll take a little time and maybe another offseason will get him right. but I will also point out he is 32, I believe. That is old enough where sometimes guys just drop off really suddenly. And maybe that's happening. I'm inclined to think that won't be the case and I will draft him next year, probably rank him as a top, certainly 60 pitcher, but probably top 50, given the upside, given the rare volume that you can get out of him. but it won't be with a lot of confidence.

Yeah, I think it would have to be as a bench pitcher for me next season. And look, there has been pretty big skill to climb this year. I mean, his swinging strike rate is down from 11.5% to 8.6%. I mean, that has to be among the worst in qualified starting pitchers this year. And his ground ball rate, which was once a strength. It's still a strength. But the past three years, it's gone from 61% to 59. percent to 54 percent.

So it's just more bad at balls that are in the air and those could do more damage against. And that's a tradeoff you can live with when the strikeout rate was 24 percent like it was last season. Yeah. But now that it's 18 percent. 18 percent is just, yeah, that's untenable. That's the kind of thing where even if he was a 61 percent ground ball rate,

it's like, okay, great. Now you're Andre Palante, you know? Like that's still a pretty unexciting pitcher. So he's going to have to put in some work this off season. Like Cowrally, it would be great to get a good month out of him to have some faith. But I don't think he needs to be 92% rostered, no. All right, let's slide over to the Waverwire hitters. And Luke Keishel went two for six with two RBI.

And I just wanted to point out once again, I feel like I brought him up recently. But 42 games since the start of July, Luke Keishel is hitting 333 with six homers, two steals, four caught stealing. County stats not really great during that time. His OPS is over 950, but he also is not impacting the ball hard at all. So the underlying metrics don't really buy it at all, but I mean, it's, we're going on two months of a 330 batting average 950 OPS. It's at least a little eye opening for Luke Kishel. Yeah, and you look at the underlying data, even going back to June, you know, you look at the month by month, ex-woba. It was 268, 293, the first. two months of the season. That's really bad.

331, 3304 since then. 374 in August is great. Yeah, that's really good. And I don't think that's likely to be sustainable. And I think the whole profile makes a lot more sense if he was running like he did last

season. He only has 14 steals. He had 14 and 49 games last year. He's been caught 14 out of 20 or 7 out of 21 times. So you know, I I think looking ahead, if this is a guy you can expect 12 homers out of and a pretty helpful batting average, you know, 275, 280, that's awesome. If it's 15 to 20 steals, though, that's a pretty fringy player.

I do want to see him be more like a 25 to 30 steel guy, and then we can start talking about him like, you know, I made the Nico Corner cop before the season. That still seems reasonable. He's just got to be a better base stealer. If he gets those 25 to 30, he can kind of be that Bryson Stott set it and forget it. I mean, you're never excited to draft him, but it's just a solid middle infielder every season. And he's probably going to be a lead off hitter. Yeah, he has been leading off. His OBP on the season is 364.

It's actually really good, yeah. He just, there are, as a real life player, his defense has been very bad, pretty much everywhere they've tried him. which raises some questions about what the twins are going to do long term, but he's still so young and so cheap that I think he's going to have an everyday role. It's just there are still flaws in his game that you'd like to see him iron out. At 74% roster has second base in outfield eligibility, do you think that number needs to be higher? I mean, just a must roster player at this point, Keishel?

No, he's not a must-start player in a points league, right? Even at second base. I wouldn't think so. So 74%. I think he's okay to add if you don't like your second baseman, but... Yeah, even over the last 28 days in points leagues, it's 2.8 fantasy points. Yeah. Like, I would guess that's not that.

That's probably worse than Bryson Stott, actually. Yeah. So, yeah, that... I think his roster rate is probably okay. Bryson Stott is at 3.7. He's actually been awesome. Wow. A couple of their names here.

Henry Boltee having a big August, three for four with a walk and three run scored. I have to bring him up while Scott isn't around because I know he hates Henry Bolte, even though he had him as a sleeper hitter this week. But in 22 August games, 345, three homers, two steals, 17 runs scored, 900 OPS. 41% roster.

Do you think that number needs to be higher for Henry Bolte? As a hot hand play, sure. Like he's playing every day for the A's, it's been leaning off too. Yeah, it's not especially good lineup, but it is at least a good home ballpark right now or remains. I do think on the whole, he is still more a collection of interesting tools

than a fully realized baseball player. But he's been really good in the month of August. It's with a 26% strikeout rate and a ton of ground ball. and, you know, he's still figuring it out. I think there are really interesting tools here, but he is not optimized at all. So I don't think it's likely to last,

but while he's hot, sure. He does hit way too many ground balls. He has big bad speed. He has great real life speed, too. He's very fast, but he does hit a lot of ground balls. And a 6% pulled air rate. That's really, really bad. Not good for the power production.

He has hit first or second in the lineup. in 10 straight games. So at 41% rostered, I think it needs to be rostered in all five outfielder leagues. So I feel like that number could probably be a little bit higher there for Bolte. A couple of their names here. Kael and Colpepper went four for five with four singles, a run, and an RBI. Over his last five games, he has nine hits and a homer. He's looked pretty good so far.

He's hitting the ball hard. Lots of line drives, 34% rostered. There's Pedro Ramirez, who we spoke about yesterday. He went two for four with a triple, a run, and an RBI. last two games have been great for him. He has started 9 straight and 11 of the past 12, 22% rostered, second and third base eligible. And Tristan Peters, another name I brought up yesterday,

but he has homered in 3 straight. It was a 10th home run. He has started 7 straight and 10 of the past 11, and he is having himself a pretty nice August here. Chris, any interest in, do you think these roster rates need to be higher? Kael and Cole Pepper, 34%. Pedro Ramirez, 22%. and Tristan Peter's 18%.

I think all three could be higher. I think Peter is probably the least interesting of the group. I just don't think there's a ton of upside, but he's got a fantasy-friendly skill set with a little bit of pop and a little bit of speed, and he plays regularly. So I'm not going to say there's nothing there, and certainly 18% roster is probably too low.

But Ramirez, I think he's just pretty good. I think he does not look that dissimilar from Nico Horner. It doesn't make nearly as much contact. That's the biggest difference. It's more like a 19% strikeout rate. In the minors, it was more like 14, 15%. If he can get there, I think there's a lot to like about Pedro Mor Ramirez. But he's going to be a pretty good source of batting average.

There's not a ton of hop, but he could be a 10-homer guy over a full season, 25 steals. He's on pace for about that right now. And he's playing every day. So I think he's pretty good. But I will say, I mean, I just look at Kael and, Cole Pepper at 34% rostered. And I look at George Lombard at 72% rostered.

And I'm not going to say Cahill and Cole Pepper is as good as George Lombard. Certainly as a real-life player, I think Lombard is probably going to be better. And in head-to-head points leagues, especially the walk rate for Lombard is likely to be better. Although I think, I think Cole Pepper's actually walked more so far in their major league careers. It's very close. Lombard hasn't walked quite as much as you'd expect so far. but yeah, Lombard has six walks in 17 games. Cole Pepper has two walks in 14 games.

Okay, so yeah, that's, but I think Colpeper has a really fantasy friendly skill set. He's hitting the ball really hard. He was like a 2020 guy on pace at AAA. I think he's definitely under rostered at 34%. Now in points leagues, no middle infield spot. You probably don't have any interest in kill in Colbyper. Pepper and that's where Lombard makes more sense, although I don't think either of them are top 12 guys in a points league, but as a middle infielder in a roto league, I don't think there's

that much difference between Kailen Kohlpeper and Jordan Lombard right now. So I think there's a, I think he's definitely under-rastered. All right, did you realize? I have some hitter fun facts here. Is that a song? Yeah, there's a flaming lip song. Do you realize? You play it.

I'll check it out afterwards. Rafael Devers, big game here, two for four with his 27th homer and three RBI. He really just had a brutal April, but in 100 games since the start of May, 255 batting average, 25 homers, OPS over 875. I hadn't realized it,

I mean, since the start of May, he's just been Raphael Devers. That's two years in a row that he's doing this. Just an awful April and then figures it out. I do think there are definitely some red flags, moving forward here. And there will probably come at the point where the slow start

isn't just a slow start. But at the end of the day, he's been a must-star fantasy option this season. The counting stats aren't great. You know, you look at the overall production, and it's like, he hasn't been that much worse than like Pete Alonzo. 27 homers, 71 runs, 73 RBI.

It's just for Alonzo, I think it's like 79 runs and 85. RBI. And so the counting stats have been better. The batting average has been about 20 points better for Alonzo as well. So I'm not saying they're the same player, but there's not that much difference between them. But the counting stats are, you know, it's probably going to end up 32, 33 homers, maybe 35 if you get taught, but probably only like 90 runs, 90 RBI. So he's not a dominant first basement anymore, but he's still a very good one. Otto Lopez, two for four with a run in RBI, but he has slowed down quite a bit. Second half, 33 games, 229, zero homers, still has eight steals, a 549 OPS, lots of ground balls during this stretch.

And it was painful to do at the time, but we did kind of mark him as a sell-high candidate back in July, and so hopefully you did listen to that with Otto Lopez. But yeah, he has really slowed down, Chris. Yeah, and the underlying numbers, look a lot worse too. The last 100 plate appearances, 298 ex-woba.

For the season, his ex-wob is actually lower than it was last season. That's interesting. What's up with that? I don't have a good explanation for that because his expected batting average is higher. His average eggs of velocity is higher. I don't know.

I don't think it ever made a ton of sense to expect Otto Lopez to remain an elite fantasy option forever. Yeah. But I do say, still think he should be a good source of batting average, not a 330 guy like he was in the first half. But if he hits 280 moving forward and it's 10 to 12 homers and he's going to end up with 30 steals this season, it's a really solid player. It's just not a top 50 pick like he looked like in the first half. Right. That's exactly right. Jonathan Ironda, he hit a homer off of a lefty. There have

not been many of those this season. His 16th home run to RBI. but he has also had a brutal second half, hitting 238 with two homers of 579 OPS. The K rate is up around 30% during that time. He's still hitting the ball hard, but not really barreling it up as much. And he's actually been pretty bad against lefties this year, 649 OPS.

So I know that we've brought this up recently, but another one who has slowed down quite a bit is Jonathan Aranda in the second half. He has weirdly only really had one good month this season. He had five homers in April, but it was with a 701 OPS. He had two homers in March, so I guess he grouped them together.

He was awesome in May. 798 OPS in June. He only had two homers, but he hit for a good batting average. It's been pretty bad since then, though. Yeah, I don't really know what to make of Aranda, because the underlying numbers still pretty good. He hits the ball very hard,

though not as hard as he did last season. I do think there's probably, at least a little bit of he's probably playing against lefties a little too much. His numbers against righties have been worse than they were last season, so I don't know if that's everything, but I don't know. Last year was so weird because he had like a 420 babbip, didn't he?

He had like a crazy high babbip. Because it was a relatively small sample, so I was only about 400 played appearances. I'm probably overstating it at 420, but it was very, very high. It was 409, and this season is 346. Yeah, 346 is still really high, but when it regress is 60 points,

you know, you see what happens. So, I don't know, I think he's a pretty good corner infielder, but probably not a starting first baseman. Jared Duran has been better in August. He went two for four with a double and a run scored, and so far in the month, 267, four homers, three steals, 828 OPS.

and I just hadn't realized his OPS by month this year all over the place. 464, 879, 395, 561, and now 828 for Jaron Duran. I mean, all over the place. I guess you're hoping he has a good September and you can say, well, at least it was a good half season. Because right now it's really bad three months

and two pretty good months. The power speed counting stats are all solid, but it's the 209 batting average. If he was hitting 240, I mean, this line would seem pretty respectable. On the other hand, if he was hitting 240, he would basically look like Dale and Lyle. True. Which isn't great. A handful more seals, but yeah, everything else is pretty close.

I don't know. He's going to be an interesting player to rank for next season because I believe has Jared Durand turned 30 yet, or is it soon? I can almost guarantee he will not be in Boston next season. He turns 30 in 10 days. And he has, I think, two years of club control left. And the Red Sox have a lot of guys. So I would guess, yeah, I agree.

Jaronne probably not going to be in Boston. That might not be a bad thing for him if he lands in the right spot. We did try to tell them to sell high after that huge season a couple years ago. and now he's kind of looking like a pretty midling starting outfielder. So we'll see what the market for him looks like. I would guess they could still get something decent for him, but teams aren't going to be pounding the door down for a 30-year-old with two years of club control left.

And yeah, probably if he's assuming he is somewhere where he's starting every day and not in a platoon role, he's probably a top 40 starting outfielder next season for fantasy but not someone I'm particularly excited about it anymore no I think we're in the decline phase here his F war over the past three years 6.8 3.9 0.1 yeah his has his defense

I feel like when I've looked at it on baseball savon it's actually been okay it's graded out negatively by like defensive war the past two years. Depends what source you look at then. But yeah, that's... Oof. Yeah, that's rough. Last name here. Did you realize Corey Seeger in 21 games

since returning is hitting 355 with three homers, 12 run scored, an OPS over 900, and his strikeout rate is down to 16%. Before he got hurt, it was 27%. So it kind of looked like, and maybe still a possibility, that Corey Seeger is a little washed.

you know, that age is catching up, but, you know, that strikeout rate bouncing back, I think it's a very good sign there for Corey Seeger. Yeah, he'll probably be someone I draft a lot of next season when he's, I don't know, 160th or whatever. He's all yours, Chris. I will not be drafting Corey Seeger. Pitchers that keep chugging along, massive consistency here. And Sandy.

Sandy. Tell me about it. Sandy Alcantra. Yet another quality start. and he has a quality start in 14 of his last 16, and during that 16-star stretch, 249 ERA 107 whip for Sandy Al-Consora. Kate Cavali, another quality start for him. Six innings to run seven strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 93 pitches,

and he has a quality start in nine straight. During that span, 209 ERA.93 whip for Kate Cavali, who's, I don't know, man, working his way into like top, 24 like SP conversation next year? I don't know, man. Kate Cavali just looks really good.

I'll be out if that's the price. I get it. Like he's been awesome this season. He has the most starts of any pitcher in baseball this season with three earned runs or fewer. He has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 26 of his starts this season.

Sounds like a pretty good reason to draft Kate Cavalli. On the other hand, he's what, 29? And this is like the first time he's, he's ever stayed healthy for a season. Is he really that old? I believe Cade Covelli, he made his debut in like 20...

He's 28 years old, yeah. Yeah, he made his debut in 2019 or something. 2020. Okay, yeah. My time is a little off, but... Drafted in 2020 as a first round pick, but yeah, he wasn't... I forgot he was a pitcher out of college,

so he was a little bit older when he got drafted. And he just missed two full years, really kind of three, so... Yeah. Yeah, I Look, my skepticism about Garer Crochet looked really dumb last year

and it was a similar case where it was the first time he'd ever stayed healthy so maybe Cavali will turn the corner. Let's not talk about what happened with Crochet this season, but you know, yeah, I can't quite get all the way there

with him. And maybe that's unfair because the peripherals are really good and he's got multiple really good swing and miss pitches including one super elite pitch in that curveball. So I'll grant that maybe I'm not being 100%

fair to Cade de Valle, but I can't quite get all the way there on him as a top 25 pitcher. Top 35, top 40, yeah, that makes sense. But I think the risk profile is just going to be a little unwieldy for me. But

you know, Ocantra, it's just one bad month. He was just bad in May, and he's been awesome outside of that. So, you know, not an ace. You know, even in this really good stretch, it's not even close to a strikeout per inning. You probably won't get back to that, but he's really good. You know, he's not an ace, but probably someone who should be drafted as a top 25, top 30 starting pitcher next season. I mean, both of these names, Kate Cavali and Sandy, I have back-to-back SP29 and SP30.

So that's where I'm at on both of those two. And then two other names here, Parker Messick, another solid outing, this one at the Angels, six innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts, and he has allowed two run runs or fewer in nine straight. It's also two walks or fewer in seven straight. So a lot of consistency here from Messick. And Robbie Ray, five in a third innings, two runs, two walks, five strikeouts,

had 12 whiffs on 99 pitches. I don't trust it at all, but his last 11 starts, he has at 194. ERA. This just shows how much you shouldn't trust it. It's a 123 whip to go along with a 194 ERA. His ERA estimators are closer to four. Some of them are near five.

So I said this last time out. Like every start feels like a tightrope walk for Robbie Ray. But he's doing it. He's walking the tightrope. Yeah. I mean, this is one of those situations where if you want to keep using him, that's cool. I don't have Robbie Ray anywhere. So I won't be.

but it's working out right now. It's just a question of, does he, do you avoid the inevitable regression? Yeah, I don't know. Because it's someone that could fall apart fast. Remember his second half last year was really, really bad. Yeah, so I would not be, I would not have a long leash with Robbie Ray.

The first sign of trouble, I would be pulling him out of my lineup. Let's see, Robbie Ray's final. right around this time last year from August 29th on his final five starts 874 ERA and a 172 win so he is someone that can undo a lot

of the good very quickly there in Robbie Ray the call to the bullpen for the raise Brian Baker picked up his league leading 38th save of the season for the Red Sox the Roldus Chapman picked up his 30th save

for the Guardians Cade Smith gave up a run but did pick up his 34th save. For the twins, Joendris Gomez, you know, using a closer in a non-save situation. He gets the ninth with a seven-run lead.

He gave up four earned runs on a walk and four hits. He only got two outs. And then it was Andrew Morris who came on to get the final out of that game for his fourth save. And I believe that Pirates game recently went final in extras. And it was...

her somebody named Johann Ramirez who picked up his second save with the pirates yeah Kirby Yates was dancing on a on a tight rope the entire time that was he walked two in the inning before

and managed to wiggle his way out of that one so he was lucky got out of it Luke Weaver blew the hole Mason Montgomery look good so frustrating we were talking beforehand in my home league head to head playoff matchup I had Braxton

Ashcraft and Mason Montgomery in my lineup. So I was looking forward to the win, into the save, and then Luke Weaver blew it, so. That's rough. Come on, Luke Weaver. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday. Will Warren against the Astros, Jackson Job against the Rays. Andrew Alvarez

is home against the Rockies. We have Seth Lugo at the Blue Jays. Max Scher against the Royals. Zach Thornton, home against the Brewers. Bryce Seller against the Dodgers. No thank you. Anthony K. Against the Rangers. Chris Bassett is at the Cardinal. Walbert Arrania, home against the Guardians.

Clay Holmes at the D-backs. Aranola at the Mariners, Brady Singer at the Giants, Adrian Houser, home against the Reds. There are a lot of options on Tuesday. Yeah, I don't mind. I think Arania is the top choice for me, but I don't mind Nola. I don't mind Singer.

I don't mind. Maybe Kay? I like Andrew Alvarez against the Rockies. Yeah, Andrew Alvarez against the Rockies. This isn't a bad day. Yeah. Anthony Kay has been pitching better, and he gets the Rangers, which is pretty good.

And even Clay Holmes at the D-backs. I know he's not missing any bats since joining the Cubs, but they have an awesome defense, and the D-backs are not very good against right-handed pitchers this year. And they don't have Catelle Marte, so I do like Clay Holmes as well. On Wednesday, Nicola Dolo at the Giants, Landon Rube, home against the Reds.

Joey Cantillo is at the Angels. Grayson Rodriguez on the other side, home against the Guardians. Bubba Chandler is at the Padre, Shane Bieber coming off a great start, home against the Royals. AJ Smith, Shawver gets the Debt,

the Dodgers, excuse me. There's Connor Prelip at the athletics and J.T. Ginn, home against the Twins. I don't know if there's anybody I trust here. There's a lot of interesting talents versus interesting matchups.

I think Ginn versus the Twins feels like a high floor type option. Ginn and Bieber would probably be the best ones, but it's not hard to see how it goes poorly for either of them. I would go Ginn, Beber, and Cantillo. I think so, yeah. And then a fourth as like, hit or miss, but Grace and Rodriguez against the car.

Jason or Bobba Chandler, but I don't trust either of them, certainly. I mean, even kind of pre-lipped, there's some upside there. But yeah, just in Sacramento, I just hate streaming pictures there. I'll wrap up with a few team name Tuesdays here. These are from Jake, and they are all insurance related. How about that? Like a good glaber, State Farm is there. Sure.

We are Kyle Farmer. Bum, bum bum bum bum bum. Yeah. Liberator. Liberator. Liberator. Liberator. I feel like I'm supposed to get this one, but I don't.

That's the, oh, man. I'm just going to write stupid insurance commercials. Oh, is it the Liberty Mutual? Liberty Bibbytery. Is that it? The Liberty Bibbity one. Yeah. Liberty Bibby.

I don't understand what they're trying to sell me with, I mean, I mean, I find insurance, okay, putting it out, I'm 38 years old now. I don't really understand insurance. Like, I just like, it's just like, I don't really get it. I have had to learn to, to, but like, to learn it. It's not, it's not. I don't have a car. I have health insurance, but like, I don't really like, I don't understand how any of it works.

I know there's like deductibles and pre. I don't really, I don't really get it. Like, whatever, I'm dumb. It's fine. But I also just like, I find so many insurance commercials baffling. Like, why is a guy mispronouncing the name of the company? They are among the commercials. They are among the commercials.

I hate most. I just, I have insurance companies that I would never use just because I hate their commercials so much. It's, which I won't mention because I don't want to give them any free advertising. They all got a little, they all got a little, like a little guy,

like a little mascot. I don't know. It's very confusing. I don't understand it. That's, that's, I hope I never have. to understand it. Maybe I'll just live a blessed life and never need it. Yeah. This last one from Jake

is Aff Lake, Affleck. Yep. Who's the lake that we're going for? I guess we could go like Lake Bacher. I was, I was thinking of Junior Lake. Junior Lake. I was thinking that yeah. Is it Lake or is it Luke Bocker? I think it's Lake Baccar. Bacar? I don't know. I feel like I heard it pronounced one time. He's on my favorite team, but I, I, I, I, I got, I, I think, He got traded to the Pirates, Chris. Oh, he did. That's right. I usually don't watch the games with the sound on, honestly.

Is that because you don't like the announcers or you just have a lot of on? No, I'm, you know, I'm listening to music. I'm trying. I can't listen to people talking while I'm writing. And a lot of the times when I'm watching games, I'm watching writing. So, like, I can't have someone talking. Yeah. I can't have someone talking.

I can't listen to rap music when I'm writing. I just want to listen to it. You know, I want to listen to what they're saying. and I just, I can't. Yeah. I've, the only music I can listen to while working is, is like instrumental music.

Anything that has lyrics, I just, I don't know, I can listen to like, oh, you know, I was listening to the new Phoebe Bridger's album while I was writing, but I can't,

I can't with like, where the words are the focus, you know? And that's, that's tough. This last one's from Michael. If my 2027 fantasy team name isn't Y2K'd, I don't even know what I'm doing.

I, I gathered this was, a discussion from his debut, but I didn't. We had a lot of, there was one night where we had a lot of Y2K conversation last week when you weren't here. I don't know why, but it just, it happened. It was the thing. So, all right, all right. Oh, it was, oh, when we were talking about Kate Anderson getting called up, we were talking about like some of the most anticipated events in human history and how Y2K was so widely, oh my gosh, what's going to happen? And then nothing happened. So,

well hopefully well no okay that one because people put in work to make sure nothing happened you know like I feel like that people always remember it's like oh they overblown it was overblown it's like well no people actually like

put in the work to make sure it didn't happen you know a lot of people worked overtime to make sure that the computer coding was up to date so you know it wasn't a phantom menace situation is what I'm saying there you go shout out to all the coders

you get your credit Yeah. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts. Hello and welcome to Pluto Fo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. Where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy.

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