Fantasy Baseball Today - Jacob Lopez DID IT AGAIN & WORRY-O-METER! (8/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Jacob Lopez has had two awesome starts in a row (2:30)! ... Spencer Strider got destroyed by the Mets (9:12). ... Roman Anthony is emerging and the Mets went off (16:08). ... News (21:30): Josh Hader was officially placed on the IL. ... The Brewers are undefeated in August (29:18). ... Giancarlo Stanton is on a heater right now (34:42). ... Michael Wacha continues to pitch well (45:35). ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter for struggling pitchers (50:23). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:06). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Jacob Lopez is looking pretty good, pretty good. Welcome in some fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, August 13th.

I am Frank Sample joined by Chris Towers. today on the show. Roman Anthony is emerging. Back to back games with the home run for him. We had huge games from the Mets and the Brewers. The Brew crew, by the way, 11 and O in August. Best record in baseball. And we'll fire up the Woreometer for some struggling pitchers.

Let's jump in. Holy Toledo. All right, let's just kick things off here, Chris, with Jacob Lopez, who was tremendous again. This time against Tampa Bay, seven shutout innings, nine, strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 96 pitches, and that is two starts in a row of at least seven shutout with nine plus strikeouts here.

In fact, he has not allowed an earned run in his past four starts, and he is doing things a little bit differently recently. He is throwing his slider more, and he is throwing it with less velocity and getting some really good results with that pitch. The slider in this one had eight whiffs, a 57% whiff rate, 30%. 36% CSW. So that looks like a contributing factor here for Jacob Lopez, who's now down to a 330 ERA, 11K per 9.

He, uh, I don't know, might be starting to figure things out. 61% rostered. Looks like he could be a two-star pitcher for next week. Do we change everything we said about WaverWire pitchers yesterday and move Jacob Lopez to the top of that list? I don't think we have to go that far. we have seen stretches like this from Jacob Lopez before, including, I believe, consecutive nine strikeout starts back in June.

And obviously that did not mean that Jacob Lopez was suddenly a fantasy stalwart. But I am certainly more open to the possibility of that happening. And I do want to point out that I think the slider velocity being lower is an intentional decision. It's not, you see it a little. little bit with the rest of his arsenal, but the slider has been by far the most down the last two starts. And it's started two starts to go. He's getting both more horizontal and more vertical break on the pitch. And so I think this is a conscious decision to, to chase more whiffs with that pitch. And the fundamentals with Jacob Lopez haven't necessarily changed, right?

He still had, I think, seven ground outs to four, or seven flyouts to four ground outs. I guess that's slightly less extreme. Then we're used to. to seeing, but he is still arguably the most extreme flyball pitcher in baseball. He manages hard contact well. He gets a decent amount of strikeouts. His control's been fine. I think all in all, Jacob Lopez is looking like a pretty useful fantasy option. It's just he is the most extreme flyball pitcher in baseball pitching in one of the worst home parks for home runs in baseball. So I do think there are just always going to be some limitations on how good he can be because of that. But you don't have to be an ace to be useful. And I certainly don't

think Jacob Loeb is an ace right now, but I think he's going to be pretty useful moving forward. I feel pretty good about that. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with what we've seen from him. So who would we be comparing him to last night? I think last night it was mostly Christian Javier, Debbie Matthews, Maybe you throw Darvish in that mix if you trust what he's been doing lately. I think he's very much in that range. Is he at the top of the list? I think I'd still rather have Harvey Matthews.

I think the skill set stronger, but it's actually a pretty similar profile. Matthews maybe slightly fewer strikeouts right. Actually, he has a higher strikeout rate, I think. This is like 28, 29%. Lopez is right at 28. Matthews has better control. Both are likely to struggle with home runs. So I think it's pretty close.

I would give Matthews the edge. I think the stuff is stronger overall. The thing with Lopez is it's always going to feel, at least to a certain extent, like he's getting away with it. Because he's a soft tosser. He's got like a kind of funky delivery. He comes from a weird arm angle. All of his pitches move differently than you would expect. They have a cool feature on baseball savant where they kind of, they show where a pitcher's average pitch movement is on this.

four-way chart and then they show what a typical pitch from that from a pitcher of a left hand in Jacob Lopez's case and his are way different than what you'd expect like his four seamer gets way more horizontal run

and way less rise which is generally not what we're looking for when we're looking for missing bats but weird is not a bad thing for a pitcher and Jacob Lopez is a pretty weird pitcher So I wonder how long you can get away with that. I wonder how long, like, is this another scenario where it's going to be up and down and they're going to get a little more tape on him and catch up?

I would suspect that's the case with a guy with just okay, not great stuff. But I think it's worth adding him right now just to see if he can keep building on this. It's a good point that you brought up that earlier this season, And we did see a three-star stretch from Jacob Lopez where he gave up just, he allowed just one run. And he had 24 strikeouts over 19 innings. So that was back in mid-June where kind of looked like he was taking off. And then he followed that up with a four-star stretch where he struggled quite a bit with control, gave up some home runs.

And I think it's too early to definitively say that's always how it's going to go. with Jacob Lopez, but I think he might be a pitcher that is streaky, right? Where maybe he struggles at times with control, and if he misses his spots, boom, he gives up some home runs. But also when he's on, we're seeing what he's capable of with some of these big strikeout starts as well. So 61% rostered, I, yeah, the Christian Javier thing is interesting because he, he looked pretty good yesterday and the velocity being up. And obviously he has a bit of a track record there. It was years ago, but, you know, he had like, he had like. an ace outcome season.

So it is possible that he can get back to that level with this increased velocity. He was pretty much step for step with Spencer Strider that year, if I'm remembering correctly, 2022. Very similar approach too. So, yeah, I

think I would put Matthews and Javier ahead of Lopez, but I think they're all kind of in a similar bucket. We'll have some Moriometer pitchers later on and I'll bring up the potential of dropping any of them for some of these names. So we'll talk about that a little bit later on.

One of the names who struggled quite a bit, I don't think we're dropping him, but man, Spencer Strider just destroyed by the Mets. Yeah, Adern runs over four innings. He gave up three home runs, only had seven whiffs on 82 pitches. And now his ERA for the season is up to 469, I believe. Yeah.

That's pretty bad. Now it's worth noting it's up basically a row. run in his last two starts alone because he's given up 13 runs in eight and two-thirds endings in that stretch. But he hasn't had a quality start in four turns. His last one was on July 18th. He just hasn't been nearly as effective as last season. And if you look at the pitch by pitch data, the slider still looks like an elite pitch, right?

It's getting a ton of whiffs, 50% whiff rate, 254 X-WOBA. that's excellent. Curve ball. I mean, it's a very small sample size. He's only thrown 83 of them, but that has a 52% whiff rate and really good results on balls and play. And then the fast ball is just bad now.

And you expect four seamers to have worse results, both on balls and play and on swings and misses, then you're breaking balls just because hitters aren't swinging at as many of them. You're throwing a lot more of them in the zone. it just generally that's what happens. But Spencer Strider went from in 2022 and 2022 and 2023, having a very, very good fastball, 317 X-Woba in 2020,

29% whiff rate. This season, 370X-WOBA before tonight, 16% whiff rate with the four seamer. He's down almost two miles per hour with that pitch. The Stuff Plus has gone from clearly above average to clearly below average on the four seamer. The location has. has gone from slightly above average to slightly below average.

Command was never Spencer Strider's strong suit. He got away with, you know, iffy command because his stuff was so good. And now the stuff isn't quite as good, and the command hasn't been there. So it's exactly what you would think for a guy whose strikeout rate has gone from elite to very good. And his quality of contact allowed has gone from, you know, always kind of being an issue to now being a real issue. And so I don't know. Like you said, with Spencer Strider, I don't think there's any way I could drop him. We have seen a couple of ace outcomes from him this season, I think, an 11 strikeout start and a 13 strikeout start.

You just don't want to risk someone else picking him up and him figuring it out. He figures it out, but putting him on the bench, maybe. I think benching him is perfectly reasonable. I think he's a risky start next week either way. I think the more interesting question is starting to look ahead to 2026 and what to do with him there. And one thing that I really am planning on doing this offseason is kind of doing a big deep dive on the internal brace procedure guys. You know, we've had him Spencer Shredder, Lucas Geolito. Drew Rasmussen is actually a pretty big win.

But I want to, you know, we're starting. the database that I have access to only has like 55 players having the internal brace procedure not all of them were in the majors not all of them ever got to the majors so we're still dealing with really small sample sizes but anecdotally it sure doesn't feel like the

internal brace procedure guys are coming back quite as good as the Tommy John guys they're coming back quicker and that's a tradeoff that may be worthwhile but yeah, it's, I don't know. We kind of, you know, this time a year ago, we were talking about, hey, Spencer Strider had the internal brace procedure, not Tommy John. That means he'll be back quicker. This is a good thing.

Now I'm not so sure. Again, we're dealing with small samples. Spencer Strider is kind of the only guy who's like an ace and at the peak of their career to have this procedure. Like Brian Wu had it in college. Lucas Gielito was 28 but had been having a couple of bad seasons before his injuries so Drew Asperson, it was his third elbow surgery

so I don't know how much useful data we're going to have from this and we'll get more in the coming seasons as well but I do think you kind of do have to look at the internal brace procedure guys with a little bit of a side eye and you know then you've got Shohei Otani, who's looked awesome.

He also had, what, six extra months of recovery time before coming back and is being worked back super, super slowly. So it's a completely different situation. So it's all to say that just eyeballing it right now, you know, Spencer Strider ended up being like a top 75 pick over the final 10 days of draft season. Once we saw him in spring training, his draft price just skyrocketed. Um, he won't, he can't be that, uh, for 2026. He was the number 16 SP over the final 10 days of draft season.

Yeah. That was a mistake. Yeah. But I kind of just eyeballed it and think like, right around 100, 110 overall, right around 30 to 35 at SPs. That's probably where I'm going to draft him. I haven't even like, I have no idea. Like that is just.

just completely pulled out of my rear end. But I don't know if I'd want to let him fall too much further than that. Just because, like, we'll have a normal offseason. Maybe he can, you know, tweak the pitch mix. Part of the problem is the fastball's bad and he just doesn't have anything else in that velocity range. He doesn't have a sinker. He doesn't have a cutter. Maybe it's time to start working on one of those pitches.

If the fastball can't be, you know, an anchor of his arsenal. maybe the velocity just comes back. Maybe the command's better next year. I still think both in the short term and the long term, there's too much demonstrated upside to just give up on Spencer Strider. It's either he has to figure out a way for that fastball to become more effective again,

or like you said, throw that pitch a lot less. Like now he throws it 50% of the time. Maybe it's, okay, now he's throwing that pitch 30% of the time and just throwing more sliders and cursors. and maybe develops a change-up or something. But this iteration of Spencer Shrider, I'm not so sure that it's going to work. So he definitely has to figure some things out there.

I did want to just mention up top, Roman Anthony, just insane game for him here. One for two with a sock in a shoe, but also had four walks and four runs scored as a 21-year-old, right? Like, he's having success already at the Major League level. He's homeward in back-to-back games. He is up to a 406 on base point.

percentage already. Yes, we want to see more power, more speed. Again, he's still super young. So, but that stuff might be coming, right? It's like back-to-back games with a homer. Maybe he's just starting to figure things out right now too. And he's obviously very athletic. So perhaps more steals could be on the way as well. They've thrown him in the lead off spot. And it's working out well. Obviously, he's, he's figuring things out on the fly here. And obviously the Red Sox have immense trust and faith in him. They just gave him a huge long-term contract. So, uh, yeah. Looks like Roman Anthony is starting to figure things out. Also wanted to mention for the Mets, a slug fest here against the aforementioned Spencer Shrider.

Just congrats to P. Alonzo, man. The polar bear setting the Mets' all-time home run record, passing Darrell Strawberry here with two home runs in this game. He's now up to 28 home runs, 96 RBI on the season here. Yes, he had a month-long lull where he was struggling quite a bit, but looks like he's slowly climbing out of that. also Francisco Alvarez, three for four, with a double dong four RBI in this one. And since being recalled, he's batting 304,

three homers, a 1048 OPS. A lot of that production was done in this game. Although he had been, it was like a 40 OPS, I think, before this. And he's rostered in 30% of leagues. I'm not sure I could get him in the top 12 at catcher. I think that'd be really hard. But two catcher leagues, yeah.

He's more lower rostered than Ryan Jeffer. and Tyler Stevenson and Sean Murphy. And I'd rather have Francisco Valvarez than those guys, given what he did at AAA, given what he's done since coming back. I think there is still era pointing up for Francisco Ivers. I do just want to say, wild that Pete Alonzo is the Mets' home run record holder. I just like, they've been around for 60 years. Yeah.

Like 253, I think, wasn't 252 was the number that they're. Charles Strawberry set, that's a really, like the Marlins, all-time home run record holder has more than Pete Alonzo. That feels weird. That is pretty weird. I mean, I guess they are, they have like a richer history of pitching, I feel like. And obviously, like David Wright was going down like an all-time great path before, you know, being hampered by injuries and things like that.

So, yeah, it is pretty surprising. And the fact that Alonzo has done it at, what, like 29, like how old? 28, 29, yeah. 30 years old, like he's under 30, so it's a testament to him, man. You know what's even more surprising, though? Is that? Do you know who the Padres' all-time home run record holder is? Is it Mani Machado?

It is Mani Machado with 187. Previously to him, Nate Colbert, who played six seasons with them. I actually had 163 homers in six seasons. That's pretty good. But, man, that's like they've been around a while too. Yes, they certainly have. So pretty interesting stats, some numbers there. And shout out again to Pete Alonzo.

For those watching on YouTube, make sure to sign up for our, actually, anybody, if you're listening or watching, sign up for the FBT newsletter. We're getting into the dog days here. We're headed for the final stretch of the season. But you could scan the QR code on YouTube. Go to cbsports.com slash newsletters, and you can sign up for the FBT newsletter for free. And also, a big thanks to those watching. live, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe

on YouTube as well. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in news and notes. Josh Hater was officially placed on the aisle with a left shoulder strain retroactive to August 11th and we spoke about this yesterday. Brian Abreu

makes the most obvious sense here as a replacement for Josh Hater but I will point out they have a lefty in their bullpen, Benet Sousa who already has four saves this season. So as much as we want it to be Brian Abraeu, and that would be our guest, Chris,

I guess the fact that Sousa has already closed out four games, maybe they go with him. Yeah, and Scott brought up a good point yesterday that the Astros primary high-leverage guys outside of Brian Abraer are pretty much all lefties. Yeah. And so I could see them holding Brian Abraeu or using him in a high-leverage spot in the eighth against three,

you know, really good righties or something. I could see that being the case occasionally, but Bray is one of the best relievers in baseball by any metric possible. He's never been a full-time closer, but he's had a handful of saves here and there. I would think he's not going to be treated like Josh Hater, but I think he's going to be the primary closer.

And mentioned some replacements yesterday, but in shallower leagues, guys like David Bednar, Randy Rodriguez, Cade Smith, and then in deeper formats, you do have Jojo Romero, you have Jose Ferrer and Phil Maton. Looks like he has kind of emerged as the Rangers closer there as well.

Bray, who goes right in the middle of those guys. I think at the end of the top tier, ahead of that second tier. Yeah, I think that's fair. Brian Snicker told reporters that Ronald Acuna won't require a rehab assignment and could be activated from the aisle before this week is over. Chris Sale tossed two innings in his first rehab start at AAA. He got up to 40 pitches. and speaking of rehab starts, I didn't write it down here,

but we were talking beforehand, Chris, and you saw that Aaronola had like 11 strikeouts, right? Yeah, 11 strikeouts in five and a third innings. Velocity looked fine, maybe down a half mile an hour. Looked good and looks, you know, that kind of start makes you think he's probably going to be back very soon. So hopefully we can get something out of Aeronola in the final two months of the season. I also want to point out the Braves did say they were going to stick with a six-man rotation the rest of the season.

It's not like they have a lot of good pitchers, but I guess they have a lot of pitchers. So that's something to keep in mind with Strider and Chris Sale moving forward. They'll take a little hit, but, you know, probably doesn't matter too much. They get, you know, Strider probably gets seven more starts instead of eight. It doesn't make a huge difference, though. I mean, it does matter for points leagues and leagues where you're chasing volume. And if you're in a weekly lineup league where you are often looking at two-star pitchers and things like that, like, yeah, that actually matters in leagues like that.

Yordon Alvarez could advance to facing live pitching this weekend. This is still just moving really, really slowly here for Alvarez. Jackson Trio is running at 75% intensity with no issues. and the plan is for him to begin a rehab assignment later this month. Jacob Mizirowski could begin a rehab assignment as soon as Friday. The Orioles announced that Felix Batista and Zach Eflin will be out for the remainder of the season. So I think Keegan Aiken is probably the safe source for the Orioles right now. He's, I think, had all their save opportunities so far.

Yeah, I saw one of the beatwriters say it's going to be a committee, but I would guess Keegan Agan is going to be the biggest part of the committee. I'm fascinated to see what happens with Felix Bautista next season. He's 30. He's pitched one half season in the last two, I believe, right? He missed all last year. Yep. And, you know, they don't know how serious the injury is for Bautista yet.

You know, I was reading the MLB.com story. They're not 100% sure he's going to be ready for the start of opening day next year. Oh, wow. Jeez. You know, that's not assured yet. They still have to do some testing, but they're, there does appear to be some concern about that. So, yeah, that's frustrating because he really did start to look like himself this season.

Jacob Wilson resumed a hitting progression. He's on the IL with a left forearm fracture. Dylan Cruz could be back as soon as Thursday, and he is 69% rostered. Don't think he's a name for three outfielder leagues, head-to-head leagues. He still strikes out quite a bit. He has the upside to get there, but obviously he hasn't played since May. I think there's going to be some Russ, so probably going to take some time here for Dylan Cruz to get back on track. I will just say, you know, Wyatt Langford is 100% roster or pretty close.

I guess he's like 93% roster or something. And their expected stats are basically identical this season. It's like a 343 X-WOBA for both of them. Cruz is a better stolen base threat. He's got 23 and 76 major league games or something like that. So I think there's a chance Dylan Cruz closes out the season really strong. I'm still not giving up on him, I guess I would say. The Blue Jays reinstated Andres Jimenez from the IL.

In 61 games, he's hitting 21 18 with five homers and 10 steals, 37% rostered. Chris any interest in Andres Jimenez. Is he going to play every day? That is a great question. I know his glove is worth keeping in the lineup, but they've got a decent amount of dudes. He started here when one for three. Okay. All right. Yeah. No, I don't think he matters very much.

But yeah. A very limited skill set, but you could get some stolen bases out of him if you need them. Yeah, I know his batting. That's kind of all he brings to the table. His batting average is lower this season, but his XBA was right around where it should be. It's like 250, 260. So, So if you're looking for a guy that can hit $2.50 the rest of the way with, I don't know, maybe 10 seals or something, then that's your guy, Andres Hemenis. Frankie Montas has been moved to the Mets bullpen and top prospects, Brandon Sprote, and Nolan McLean were mentioned as possible replacements for the rotation. We don't know which one it's going to be yet, if it's going to be either of those two. but I think we might have interest in either one

if they get called up and thrown into the Mets rotation. Yeah, I know Sprote is the name you probably know if you're listening to the show. If you know either of these names, Sproat would certainly be the one you're more likely to know. He's been pretty bad for about a year. I know he really struggled when he got to AAA last season, and he has really taken a step back this year.

His last seven starts have been, really good though. He's been much better. I haven't read about any specific changes to his arsenal, but that's one that I know a lot of prospect folks are pretty down on him at this point. So I would be more excited about McLean, but would be interested in either of them if they get called up. Obviously, it's a very good landing spot. Landen Roup is expected to return from the aisle this Friday against the raise. Logan Henderson is targeting a late September or early October. return from his flexor strain and the Giants option. Yeah, in redraft leagues, you go ahead and drop Logan Henderson.

And the Giants option Carson Wisenhunt to AAA and recalled Tyler Fitzgerald. Before we get to some waiver wire names here, I did just want to run through the Brewers walloping of the pirates here. They put up 14 runs on 15 hits, including five homers. Again, the Brewers are undefeated in August. They are 11 in Ho, and they have just really been redacted. ridiculous for the past month, six weeks of the baseball season? You're bearing the lead. What's going on?

Paul Skeen started against them today. Yeah. They've scored, I think, eight runs and eight innings in the last two starts that Paul Skeens has had against them. It just had been unbelievable for like a month and a half straight. Yeah. It was against Skeens and, yeah, that's two starts in a row where he has struggled against them. They're just a buzzsaw right now.

If you look at their offense, they are, second in Wobah in the second half so far. So when it comes to using your pitchers against the Brewers, obviously you have to start Paul Skeens no matter what. But, you know, some of those fringier names, maybe you want to play it a little bit safer going up against Milwaukee right now. The Brewers, this is unbelievable. In games that Andrew Vaughn has played, or Andrew Vaughn has started,

which I believe is 26 games now that Andrewvon has started with the Brewers. They have lost three. They are 23 and 3 with Andrew Vaughan in the lineup. Jeez. Two of those losses amazingly came against the Marlins. Oh my gosh. They lost three in a row to the Mariners, Marlins, and Marlins. And then it's wild.

Andrew Vaughn, National League MVP. Since joining the Brewers, by the way, Vaughn hit another home run here. He's hitting 3.47 with eight homers, 32 RBI and 27 games and OPS over 1050 and to his credit it's not just like all right is he getting lucky or anything he is hitting the crap out of the ball

92.9 average exit velocity with a 13% barrel rate and he is 74% rostered so I think he's close to a must roster player kind of interested to see what happens when they bring Reese Hoskins back like I think they just have to play Andrew Vaughn

but you know Hoskins is making money and he's a veteran so I I don't know exactly what's going to happen. And he was fine before going, like he wasn't great, but he was fine. It's just going to be annoying if Vaughn starts, I don't know, maybe sitting out every third or fourth game, you know, things like that. So I think it's worth mentioning. A couple of their names here, Bryce Terang, one for three with his 12th homer.

Just all of a sudden, a slugger in August. Where did this come from? He's hitting 351, six homers, two seals, in OPS over 1,300 in the month. Unfortunately, he did leave this game do it to, a right pinky injury, so let's pay attention to that, but it didn't affect him. He hit a home run in this game.

South Freelik 2 for 4 with two walks in his ninth homer, and I feel like at some point we probably made the, hey, if everything works out for South Relic, he can be the next Steven Kwan. And if you look at his numbers, he's hitting 293 with nine homers and 17 steals. That kind of feels like a Stephen Kwan player. To the T, basically.

Yeah, underlying numbers aren't quite as strong. for Sal Freelick he strikes out a little bit more So I think he's probably over his head a little bit Terang is kind of interesting just because he It's a conscious decision to hit for power I mean you have for power It's a relative statement, but he's got he's one home run short of matching his previous his total from the first two years of his career combined and he is I don't know exactly, but he's got to be one of the biggest bat speed gainers of anyone in baseball.

His swing speed is up four miles per hour from last season. That's a really big jump. So I don't know. That's interesting. I don't think he's a 20 homer guy and he's given some strikeouts back to make up for it. You mean steals? Yeah. He's giving up steel.

Well, strikeouts and steals. He's striking out about 4% of the time more. four and a half and obviously on pace for about half as many steals as he had last year but on the whole I think he's gonna end up being a pretty similarly valuable fantasy player yeah it's just the shape of the production has kind of changed here if you drafted bryce terrain you probably expected or wanted 35 to 40 steals or something like that and instead we're getting a much better batting average but also more power but less speed so he's he has 21 steals now. His pace has gone

way down. He probably winds up with somewhere 25 to 30. Something like that this season. Christian Yelich 3 for 3 with his 23rd home run and man, coming back from back surgery, it's been a big season for him. He's got the 23 homers, 15 steals OPS just over 800

and William Contreras. Two more hits here, two runs, two RBI and I think it's possible. The All-Star break, maybe give him a chance to kind of rest that thumb and maybe get back on track here, a nice little reset, because in the second half, Contreras is hitting 312 with six homers, 18 RBI, and a 940 OPS.

So he's not all the way back, but pretty close to it so far here in the second half. Let's take a look at some waiver wire hitters from Tuesday's action, and John Carlos Stanton continues his tear, four for five with 12 homers and with his 12th home. He didn't have 12 home runs in the game. His 12th homer over season. That would have been. But you know, something. With the way he hits the ball, Chris.

Never say never. He had three batted balls in this game over 110 miles per hour. The home run was 113.9, 447 feet. 12 homers, 34 RBI in 42 games. And he's just forcing the Yankees' hand right now. He is so hot offensively with everything that's going on with Judge. Obviously, they got to keep judging the lineup as the DH. I think they're...

not going to play Stanton every day in the outfield, but I don't know how different him and Dominguez are defensively in the outfield right now. So, well, I would think Dominguez is bad. He's, he's really bad. You know, I, I get it. Dominguez is really bad. He's bad, but I, look, I, I, here, here's a key step. Last season in 459 played appearances, John Carlos Stanton had 50 singles. This season in 157 plate appearances, he has 26 singles. That's not real. Like, Giancarlo San is not a 300 hitter.

I think he's up to 300 now for the season. Yeah. His XBA is 239. Last year, he hit 233. He hasn't hit better than 233 in a season since 2021. I think when he's hitting 240, the power, he's a power hit for power for sure. when he's hitting 240, it probably becomes much less necessary to find a way for his bat to be in the lineup every single day. I do think he's a better hitter than Jason Dominguez.

And, you know, if the plan is still for Judge to play the outfield starting next week was the last report, I think. I think last week they said it was going to be this week, but now not so sure. Yeah, okay. Maybe Judge is just never cleared to play in the outfield. That's possible, in which case, staying. just going to... No, they're talking about it like it's going to happen. Yeah, I'm just saying hypothetically, but

I don't think Stan is a must-start player in all formats. I'm not sure he's a must roster player in head-to-head points leagues, but I think it's fine to play the hot hand here. Yeah, I mean, that's the biggest thing. I don't think he's a 300 hitter either, but man, when he gets locked in like this, we saw it in the postseason, he can, you know, carry an offense or be one of the guys carrying a guy.

an offense. It's just for fantasy, if he's hitting 240 and he's playing, let's say, 70% of the games, that's a pretty fringy player, even acknowledging that he's a great powerheader. So, you don't say, man, John Carlos Stanton is not slowing down. Like when he's out there, he's still a monster. This dude might get to 500 home runs. And it's going to blow people's minds when John Carlos Stanton is a legit Hall of Fame candidate. He's at 441 career home runs right now, and he's still, I think, got three years left under contract or two years left under contract.

There's a chance. There's a pretty good chance he gets to 500 homers. I'm just saying, mentally prepare yourself for the John Carlos Stanton Hall of Fame debates. So last point on him, 60% rostered. That number is okay? I think it's fine, yeah. If he's available in your league and you need a,

he's one game away from being outfield eligible, which also helps. Yeah. So if you're, if you need an outfielder, I think it's fine to play the high hand here. Anthony Volpe also having a big second half here. And when I say big, it's, okay, he's giving us power and speed. He's still hitting 235, but eight homers and five seals, 855 OPS here in the second half.

74% rostered. I think that number's probably. probably right, too. Yeah, I think it's fine. Yeah. Next up we have Kyle Manzardo, one for four, with his 21-run, and last 21 games. He's hitting 358 with eight homers, 20 RBI,

and hitting the ball much harder. 91.5 average exit velocity, 17% barrel rate, 43% rostered. But, you know, is he going to play against the lefties? He doesn't play against every lefty. the batting average is higher now. It's 244 for the season. If he's a 250 hitter,

I think 43% roster is probably too low for Cal Manzardo. And the fact that he's hitting 358 over the past 21 games, I think it's another one where it's fine to play the hot hand. I don't think Cal Manzardo is suddenly a batting average booster, but he's not killing you right now, and I think it's fine to play the hot hand with him if you've got a need somewhere in your lineup where he can, fit. Would you rather

have him or Stanton if you're just looking for power? I would go with Stanton just because he's about to get he might have outfield eligibility in two days so I think I would go. All right. Next up is Ernie Clement who stayed

hot, one for four with his ninth home run. He has homered in three straight and so far in August he's hitting 364 with four homers and 11.05 OPS in just 10 games obviously really small sample size but But 56% rostered. He has every infield position eligibility outside of catcher, which, you know, could be useful

in its own right. But he's hot now. He's a serviceable player. But I don't think there's a very big ceiling here for Ernie Clement. I'm surprised 56% rostered. Eligible at every infield position is probably the best thing he has going for him. Because that is actually a sneaky, valuable thing to have on your bench, just like, oh, I don't know if my first baseman's going to be able to play this week.

Well, I can slide Ernie Clement in there. You know, I think that's fine. But I don't, he's not someone that I think needs to be rostered more than he is. And Dalton Varsho hit another home run, two for four with his 12 homer, has four home runs in eight August game since returning. And 12 home runs total in just 32 games this season. So we talked a lot about him lately. The exit velocities are up. He's hitting the crap out of the ball.

38% rostered where are you at on Dalton Varsho right now? I have no idea. This is so weird. It's just he went from being like one of these fringe power guys who had to hit everything to the pole side to have a chance to hit for power. And he was killing you with batting average to now like hitting nukes. And he still hits the ball to the pole side in the air a ton. So he looks like a legit power hitter right now. I really do think this is an organizational thing for the Blue Jays

because Springer has done the same thing this season when healthy. So, but it's not just, like he's hitting the ball so much harder that that's what I don't get. Like, we're talking about he's 28, I think. Like this is not something you usually see. But I'm 42% rostered you said? 38%. That's probably too low. I think Don Varsho, every five outfielder league, needs to be wrong.

at least with the power he's showing right now. Would you take him over either Jacob Marcy or Isaac Collins? Over Collins, yes. All right, and then one name in deeper leagues. Blaze Alexander is picking things up with the D-backs, one for three with a home run here, and so far in August hitting 368, four home runs, an OPS over 1200 and getting a chance to play

following the A. Eugenio Suarez trade. Jordan Lawler could be up soon, but I think if Alexander hits like this, they'll find a way to get it. get these guys in the lineup, you know, maybe DH one of them or just move guys around. Any deep league interest in Blaze Alexander? Only deep leagues. I don't think he's a huge asset for fantasy. Again, second base, third base shortstop eligibility. That's nice. He's got decent minor

league numbers, but it's as an older player, counting stats are just okay. I don't have a ton of interest in Blaze Alexander. The stat cast data in a small sample looks pretty good this year. Not the expected stats so much, but 91.3 average XIVority, 14% barrel rate entering this game. So, you know, yeah, second, third, and shortstop eligibility. I had bids on him in 15 team leagues before this week, just because I knew the D-backs had awesome matchups, and I think they have a four-game set in Cores Field coming up this weekend. So, you know, it could be like a deeper matchups play, but the eligibility hitting the ball hard. Sure. There could be a little something there with.

Alexander. Let's take our final break and when we return, we'll quickly run through some waiver wire pitchers and we'll fire up the Warioometer right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Are we interested in any of these waiver wire pitchers? And two shallow league names, Michael Waka continues to pitch well, five and two thirds innings, two runs with three strikeouts. Last six starts, he has a two ERA and a point 70 whip, but not getting strikeouts at all really here. And he's 79% rostered. Brady Singer bounced back with a strong start against the Phillies, six shutout innings, six strikeouts.

If there is a pitcher more confusing about when to use or when he decides to have good starts, I mean, Brady Singer against the Phillies, you would think, oh man, you know, coming off a terrible start. A terrible start against the Pirates. Probably going to get bombed, right? He's just been so inconsistent. He's capable of good starts,

but he's allowed seven earned runs twice this year, four plus earned runs, five different. times. You know, he's got a good slider but doesn't really have much else. Chris, any interest in Michael Waka here or singer in shallower leagues? I think we know who both these guys are. Yeah. Waka is useful though man. I mean it's a 328 ERA 115 whip. Like he's he's been doing that for like four straight years too. He's never never gets the credit but he's just solid and is he a two-star pitcher next week? It looks like against the Rangers and at the tigers and the tigers are not hitting right now so yeah that's that's

perfectly fine um I think it's perfectly fine to add Michael walk I if you don't have room for him you don't have room for him I don't think you're gonna regret not adding Michael Waco or Brady Singer and Brady Singer by the way has two best starts in the last five or his two worst starts again in the last five were against the Reds or sorry the Nationals and the Pirates he's so confusing well and then you look at the month by month and it's like 312 ERA, 560 ERA, 380 ERA, 490 ERA. It's just like it's been in-cons every other month.

It's been, yeah, Brady Singer is just, I don't think he's worth the trouble, personally. I do think the Jacob Lopez and Javier and Zebby Matthews group, they have more upside than these names. Definitely a singer. But, you know, if it's floor, stability you're looking for, points leagues, Michael Waka, I think he's totally usable right now the way he's pitching. Walk in a two-star week should be close to 100% rostered. Three other names here. Dean Kramer had a great outing against the Mariners.

Eight innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts, had 14 whiffs in this one, and used to splittermore, which seems like a good idea. Jack Leiter, excuse me, solid against the D-Max, five innings, one-run, three strikeouts, had 13 whiffs on 91 pitches. And Dustin May was great at the Astros, six-shund. out with eight strikeouts. His first start with the Red Sox did not go well at all. But obviously this one was much better. He did change up the pitch mix as well. He threw more four-scene fastballs and cutters and clearly it worked. Any interest in these three? Dean Kramer, Jack Leiter,

and Dustin May. Kramer's been good for a while. I don't totally buy it. I, like he's down to a 417 ERA for the season. I think that's probably right. And like that's, what I would expect from him moving forward is a four-ish ERA and that can be useful but it's not not something that I'm I'm excited to add and that that's kind of true of all of these guys lighter I still think there's a chance at some point the light clicks on but even with you know him having a decent run right now it's poor control it's not as many strikeouts as you want I don't think any of these guys are really high priority ads. I would rather have Jacob Lopez than any of them.

I'd rather have Zeb Matthews. Yeah. And one name in the deepest of leagues. Chris, you play in AL-only labor. This could be a name for you. Yo injuries Gomez. Had a nice start for the White Sox going up against the Tigers. Five meanings, one hit, one run, seven strikeouts to just one walk.

Throws five different pitches here. interesting numbers in the minors this season, lots of strikeouts. He's zero percent rostered. I don't know. Do you have any deep league thoughts on Yoendries Gomez? Not really. No, he's bounced around three different organizations this year. I believe he's reliever with the Yankees last year.

Yeah, and he was with the Yankees at the start of the season, was with the Dodgers for a couple of appearances and now the White Sox. I don't know. His minor league numbers are okay, but nothing. that really stands out as sustainable on a bad team. So now I don't have a lot of interest. All right, it's Worryometer Wednesday, so let's fire it up.

I've got a bunch of pitchers here to talk about. We spent a lot of time on Spencer Strider. Chris, did you want to just put a number on that? 1 to 10, 10 being you are extremely worried. You couldn't be more worried about a player. One, you're not worried at all. Where does Spencer Strider fall in that Worryometer? Well, like a 10, if you were hoping he was going to be an ace this year,

and I think we've moved past that. So it's like a seven overall. Like I said, I'm not dropping him, but I don't have a ton of confidence that he's going to be good. All right. Next up is Ranger Suarez, who had another rough outing this time at the Reds. Five and a third, 10 hits, six earned runs allowed here.

Velocity is down again, and that has kind of been a consistent issue here. Not that Ranger Suarez relies a lot on velocity, but if you throw 91-92, you know, losing a tick here and there, it could actually matter even more. five starts in the second half, a 659 ERA, and a 160 whip. Where is Ranger Suarez on the Wuriometer? Man, I try to avoid confirmation bias.

You know, when something happens that confirms what I already suspected was going to happen, I try to like keep my guard up and not let that influence me too much. And we've been saying it all along with Ranger Suarez that he has these three-month stretches seemingly every year where he looks amazing. It looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball, and it has never lasted before. And there's always some excuse. Last year it was the back injury.

A few years ago, I think he ran through the end of the season, like the last three months were great, and then it didn't sustain the next year. But I think I want to say there was some kind of like visa issue that delayed the start of his season. Or there was something that messed up his spring. training and so I was like well maybe that was it but I I did expect this because we're talking about a command over stuff profile and you have to be really locked in and you like this is not a guy who

can afford to miss his spots by a lot and now the velocity's been down for a little while that's even lower margin for error and it's just yeah I I can't say I'm like panicking on ranger swars and dropping him but I also can't say I'm surprised. that he's going through this. I think he could go out in his next start, get it right back and finish the season off

with a run of sub three ERA starts. But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't worried, so six. Chris, does that sound in the background mean that your castor are now going to break your door down? I did kick them out, and yes, they will be trying to bust down the door. So your point about Ranger Suarez

last year, his final 11 starts, he had a 654 ERA. And he had the back injury. He had an excuse. Yeah. But maybe he's pitching through something right now. I just, I don't know. I haven't heard that.

But yeah, maybe it's affecting the velocity and his ability to command pitches. The other thing is this is true of all professional athletes in basically every sport, but especially pitchers. There's almost always something that they're pitching through. We won't know about it for most guys, but you're always dealing with something. It's hard. It's hard on your body.

And I think that might just be the thing to keep in mind with Ranger Suarez moving forward. And he's a free agent. It's going to be fascinating to see what kind of deal he gets. And like 480? You get something that big? That sounds right? And it's going to be fascinating to see how aggressive the Phillies are about resigning him, given their rotation depth.

And it's going to be fascinating to see what the market looks like for. him, but it's just something to keep in mind that in Ranger Suarez's case, it might just be that like everything has to be perfect. But man, if it is, he can be really good. And if it's not, things can go downhill really quickly for him. Let's move on to Jack Flaherty, who had a rough one here against the White Sox, rough maybe. I'll let you decide. Four in a third innings, eight hits, five runs allowed, but did have six strikeouts. 19 whiffs on 86 pitches. Curveball looked fantastic. had 12 of those 19 whiffs. His fastball did get hit hard once again.

He was cruising until the fifth inning, and then everything fell apart. So I tweeted about Jack Flerty, and I got a lot of comments that he was unlucky. He was singled to death. It was all singles, and it all came in that inning. So it was just kind of a snowball effect. He had a 533 Babbup in this game.

His average exit velocity was 87.8 miles per hour. So, yeah, maybe he was a little bit unlucky. But on the other side of it, every hit that he allowed had a 280 XBA or better. So, look, I'm not saying these hitters knew to drop that hit in exactly right there. But, you know, more often than not, this has happened to Jack Flurry this season. Usually it's hard contact. But I don't know. What do you make of the start?

And where is he on the Wariometer? Well, there was a lot of loud contact in this start. And there, I'm just looking at the batted balls. that he gave up. And I think there are probably two in that fifth inning that really stand out as looking unlucky. There was one that was hit 67 miles per hour with a 40-degree launch angle.

And there's another one 66 miles per hour, 45-degree launch angle. So you look at those and you say, well, those probably shouldn't be hits. Well, one of them had a 280XBA. Okay, you can chalk that one up to bad luck. The other one had a 530XBA. Like that's actually a type of batted ball

that drops in for a hit fairly regularly. He had a 73 mile per hour single that was 15 degree launch angle that had a 520 expected batting average. He had nine batted balls with an XBA over 500. So nine batted balls that you would expect to be hits more often than not. And three of them were outs, including one that was three batted balls with an XBA of at least 580 that were hit at least 100 miles per hour. that were out. I don't really think you can look at this one and say it's bad luck. What happened to Jack Flaherty?

It's also back-to-back starts allowing five earned runs in less than five innings of work. I say all this because I have Flaherty in a lot of spots, and I'm over it, man. I am just over it. I know the strikeouts are there, and the underlying numbers look a lot better. If we were playing out the season until the end of time, I would expect his numbers to, you know,

get better and be a believe, low a four ERA or whatever it is, but man, it's just, it's been really, really frustrating all season. Yeah, and I mean, the underlying numbers are better, but the XERA is still four. So

it's not like, oh, he's been so unlucky, and if it wasn't for the bad luck, he'd be an ace. It's like, if it wasn't for the bad luck, he'd be more useful, but he wouldn't be great. So yeah, I'm kind of with you on Flaherty being pretty fringy, unfortunately.

Is he dropable? In shallower leagues, yeah, I think he probably is. Somebody on Twitter asked me today, would you drop Flaredi for Jacob Lopez? What's the next matchup? So it looks like Flaredes is a two-star pitcher. And people probably started him this week thinking he could make two starts because he was listed as that. But.

Yeah, Houston and KC next week. I'd probably hang on to Flaherty. He's just so frustrating. I get it. I get it. It's frustrating. You know, Chris, someone left us a four-star review on Apple. They said they liked the podcast except the host is really reactionary.

I'm like, well, that is kind of our job. We are supposed to react. I do react a little bit more on the players that I have on my teams. You're on the more extreme end. I'm probably on the opposite extreme end. And I think, you know, it's we can balance each other out. I have always said that I totally get you guys are much less emotional

about fantasy than I am yeah I get frustrated I think Jack clarity is good I expect more out of him so like when he destroys my ERA all season and has a 4-76 ERA yeah I'm upset about it so but you know what maybe I should just be upset at myself

for drafting him Shane Boz another meh start this one at the athletics you like the length here seven innings but five runs for the earned. Look, some good and bad here. Seven strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 93 pitches. He threw his cutter a lot more and that pitch looked awesome in this start. But he also gave up nine more hard hits.

91.3 average exit velocity. His last five starts, he has an 828 ERA and a 168 whip. So where is Shane Boz on the Wauriometer? Is he somebody you could drop? Yeah, I think he's drovable. Man, I... for Jacob Lopez? Sure. Like, I'm not saying I think Jacob Lopez will definitely be better than Shane Bosz, but I have not seen.

What have we seen from Shane Bos this season outside of like two three start stretches that make us think that he's not worth dropping? He's got an ERA near five. He's got a 133 whip. Yeah, the strikeouts are good, but they're not great overall. 9.3K per nine. Like, I just. At what point does prospect peters?

fade in your mind Chris like the fact that he was such a highly touted prospect to that maybe that's part of the reason people hold on to someone like Shane boss talented yeah there's no question that that Shane Boss is talented and and what's frustrating is that we have seen these stretches from him you know the we have a 14 strikeout game earlier in the season had a couple of 11 start strikeout starts there's clearly a ton of talent here what I'm frustrated with with Shane boss and I feel like I did it with Spencer strider at the beginning of the season. I did it with Lawrence Butler at the beginning of the season where like I found myself out on the three of them.

Like I just, boss, it was after the first like four starts when we were talking about him as a top 20 starting pitcher. He was getting all these strikeouts. And then I did this like deep dive and I noticed that he wasn't generating any chases. He wasn't pitching out of the zone. He wasn't getting the whiffs and it was like, oh, well, I don't actually buy this. But I, I, I, I see. Still, I went back and read that piece the other day. And I still said like, yeah, but I think he'll still be like a must-start pitcher. And I was like, I didn't believe that. But I was, I was afraid of going out on that limb.

And I did it with Lawrence Butler. Stick to your guns, Chris. Yeah, I got to. But then there are plenty of times when sticking to my guns has gone horribly. So I don't want to, I don't want to draw any large conclusions from it. Just to say that predicting this stuff is hard. It's a hard sport. And specifically with Shane Boz,

Warioometer 9. I think he's interesting, not good yet. And the last name here, this is more like a dropometer at this point, but Clay Holmes, a terrible outing against the Braves. Last 10 starts of 510, ERA 164 whip. 27 walks to 33 strikeouts,

over 47 and 2 thirds innings. Still 88% rostered. I don't know if it's just a lot of points leagues and stuff. That's why they felt on. him, but even as a spark, I wouldn't want to use him as a reliever right now. I'd rather pick up, you know, David Bednar in a points league and use him instead. Clay Holmes has been super iffy for a long time. Ten starts, man. It's a long time. But even before that, the peripherals have been not very good since about the start of June, I would guess. And he was getting away with it

for a long time. And maybe he's just running out of steam now and, you know, looking ahead to 2026. Maybe, you know, there's something to build on here. I think generally the experiment has been a success, but I don't see much reason to think Clay Holmes is like a must roster fantasy option. Even moving forward, like in 2026 and beyond the skill set, just seems like a Brady singer type, where there will be good starts in there. There will be useful times. But I don't think Clay Holmes is someone that you're going to regret passing on in drafts next year. All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers and starting with some hitters. Huge game for Jose Ramirez, three for four with a double dong here.

And a bit of a slow start this season, but he's basically been a beast since the start of May. He's got 25 homers and 33 steals this season. Shout out to those guardians, by the way. They have won 10 of their last 12 games, and they are right in the mix for wildcards. They're only crazy. Are they like one game back right now? Something like that. No, okay.

They're more than the five games back, but still. Of a wild card spot? Oh, no, no, no. Sorry, of the division. Wildcard, they are. Yeah, they're right there. Yeah, they're in a decent spot. Which is crazy because, you know, they lost Class A.

And, you know, they were talking about selling at the deadline, right? Like giving up Stephen Kwan and stuff like that. Aaron Judge had his first monster game since coming back, one for two with a sock and a shoe. He also had three walks in this one. 38 homers, seven steals. Jazz Chisholm is running once again, two for three with two steals in this one, has seven steals in his past 12 games.

Vinnie Pee! Baby! Vinny Pass Guantino, big game. Two for three with his 21st home run and five RBI. Kattel Marte destroyed a baseball, two for four with a sock and a shoe. The home run was hit 11.7 miles per hour, 445 feet,

and it was a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning. Alex Bregman enjoying his time back in Houston that's 2 for 5 with his 16th home run and two games there two homers in Houston and Jackson Merrill nice game here 2 4 4 with his 9th homer just wanted to point out that over his last 25 games

he has been better obviously not what you drafted would be a second or third round pick but last 25 for Merrill 271 4 homers 5 doubles 2 triples 22 RBI and hitting the ball hard It's just the power, man. The biggest thing has been the power.

There's still a lot to like here overall. He's a really, I'm, he's probably the most interested hitter, I think, for me to figure out after the season, like what he was going through, if that comes out at all, right? Because he had the concussion and there was another injury. And I think it kind of just derailed his entire season. I mean, him and Jackson Churio are having very similarly frustrating. seasons and Chariot, I think, turned it on a little earlier, but yeah, it's a, it's a really fascinating to see what we do with them in drafts next season. Yeah, I mean, Trio, 17 homers, 18 steals in 106 games. He actually kind of got it back on track. Yeah, he was on like a 25 or even a 30-30 pace.

He was close to it. So, yeah, we'll see. Some pitching leftovers here. We had three bad, three good and two bad. George Kirby, nice start at the Orioles. Seven shutout with seven strikeouts. Friday Peralta, great against the Pirates. Six shutout with seven strikeouts for him. And Carlos Rodan, a bit of a rocky start in this one. Through 31 pitches in the first inning. He loaded the bases with no outs, but then settled down. And it was seven innings, one hit, one run, five strikeouts for Rodan. Anything on him, Peralta or George Kirby? Peralta has been awesome. The peripherals don't necessarily back it up. But if I remember correctly, he's been a guy who,

who outperforms his peripherals. Not overall. There have definitely, last year he did, this year he is. So, yeah. He's probably more like a mid-3s-ERA guy, but, you know, good strikeout numbers. He's been dependable this season, so that's been nice.

Kirby is back. Last couple of starts, especially. He's looked like himself. And then the last nine starts, 232 ERA, very few walks. like himself. Rodan, we needed it, you know, for sure. It's been a really rocky stretch for him. He just goes through these stretches where he just has no idea where his secondaries especially are going. Like, I don't know if there's a good pitcher in baseball who misses by feet more often

than Carlos Rodon does. It's like he just, he'll sail his change up, he'll sail his curveball, he'll bounce him 12 feet in front of the plate. It's, he's frustrating to watch. Oh, yeah. One thing I have noticed is the change-up has kind of taken a step back here for Rodon. It wasn't good in this one,

and I feel like a lot of the starts that I've seen recently. He's just not getting whiffs on that pitch and just not locating it very well. So that has been part of the problem for Carlos Rodon. I wanted to mention with Freddie Peralta, I know we don't ever talk about wins

just because they're impossible to predict, but he has 14 wins this year. I mean, obviously pitching for the best team in baseball that it's going to work out that way, but Freddie Peralta has never really been a big win guy. He doesn't always go deep into his starts, but 14 wins. That is awesome stuff there for Freddie Pallton. Really highlights how impossible predicting that stuff is, though. Yeah.

And then two bad outings here, Paul Skeens. We mentioned rough one at the Brewers, four innings, four runs, two homers allowed, and Spencer Arrogetti struggled with control against the Red Sox. only one hit allowed over five innings, two runs, but five walks to three strikeouts, not generating whiffs. And I still like the talent, I think, long-term for Arrogati, but I think it's going to take some time here

for him to get back on track. And we don't have long-term. True. You know, we've got eight-starts. I'm thinking like years out, but yeah, for this season. Yeah, no, no, no. I think in the, you know, you look further ahead. I still think there's a lot to like about Arrogati.

He will definitely be on my late-round sleepers list for next season, but if you wanted to drop him this season, I can't really argue against it. Call to the bullpen for the Mariners. Andres Munoz got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed two base runners but picked up his 28th save. For the Guardians, Cade Smith got the final four outs of the game, and he wound up with the win because the Guardians scored a run late in that one.

For the Rockies, Victor Vodnick got the final five outs, three via strikeout for his third save. For the debacks, Juan Murillo, got the ninth with a one-run lead. and a clean inning for his first save, they've kind of had a rotation of these just kind of misfit relievers lately. It's Juan Marillo, Andrews, Salfrank, Kyle Backus, right? We talked about recently. It's just-

Yeah, I don't think any of these guys are worth chasing. I agree. For the Angels, Kenley Jansen got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a solo homer to Otani, which I should have mentioned earlier, but second half is just ridiculous for Otani. But also, hit him to a triple play Yeah, that was insane. He hit it right at Zach Netto and man, what a heads-up play. That was awesome. You can take tungsten arm O'Doyle out of the angels, but you can't take the angels out of tungsten arm O'Doyle or whatever the same would be.

I don't know if anybody gets that reference, but there's a famous tweet. Look it up. All right. And then on the other side for the Dodgers, Alex Vessia got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a run on three walks and a hit. The Dodgers wound up losing that game in X-Rexam. their bullpen right now is a mess. So they desperately need Tanner Scott back. Vessia's been a problem now. You know, Trinan has not looked great since coming back. So big problems there for the Dodgers. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Shane Smith against the Tigers, Michael McGreevy against the Rockies, Cam Schlittler against the twins, Kate Horton at the Blue Jays, and J.T. Gin versus the Rays. Horton, Schlitler, and McGrevy are fine. I don't love

any of them but they're all fine and then on Thursday we have uh it's a short slate there's only seven games on schedule so not much here but um Brad Lord against the Phillies Bailey Ober against the Tigers Bailey Ober is the only one yeah Brad Lord is pitching well I don't yeah there's not much upside here but he gets a lot of ground balls he's limiting hard contact so I agree with you on over his last start out looked much better if you're in a deep league or you're just desperate I think Brad Lord can maybe give you five innings of two run balls something like that.

We're 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. Paramount Podcasts.