Fantasy Baseball Today - Jasson Dominguez Promoted! Darius Vines' Debut & Start/Sit Questions (8/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

The Yankees are promoting 20 year old outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez (3:50)! ... The Mets are also calling up Ronny Mauricio (12:07). ... Can Austin Wells matter in two-catcher leagues (16:15)? ... DJ Stewart keeps hitting home runs (23:20). ... Darius Vines had a successful debut in Coors Field (27:11). ... Ryan Pepiot pitched well again (29:55). ... What's the latest on rookie hitters (34:55)? ... Do we start or sit these pitchers next week (38:27)? ... News (50:20): we have another update on Wander Franco. ... Hunter Renfroe is a name to watch (57:16). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (59:24). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. September is nearly here, which means we have some big prospect promotions to talk about up next. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, August 31st.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined. by Chris the Welsh. Today on the show, Darius Vines had a successful Braves debut. Ryan Pepio continues to pitch well, starter sit questions for next week, and much more before we get started. Help us out by liking this video and subscribing on YouTube if you haven't already.

And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We really do appreciate it. Welsh, did you hear? There was a UFO sighting in New York. Oh, no. was there any sign of intelligent life?

Yes, actually there was a Martian. He's on his way to New York. A Martian, I was told they give them water and they'll just disintegrate. That's what I would six, what was the movie? I was to say the Sixth Sense. It wasn't that. It was signs. Signs told me that if you just give a Martian water,

they will disintegrate. In this case, that's probably not. I am very excited about this on a blue moon. I don't know if you noticed, a little blue moon action. I think the next one is going to be in like 2013. No shocker that we get signs of a Martian coming to New York, Frank. That's right, and he's not the only one.

In fact, it's really both New York teams because the latest that we have is Jason Dominguez getting called up by the Yankees, as is Austin Wells. And then the Mets are also promoting their 22-year-old prospect, Ronnie Maricio. And I know a lot of people say, well, you know, prospects, they come up and they fail right away, and they don't have, you know, they don't necessarily contribute much from a redraft perspective. but these are some pretty big names. So I think we just need to lead right in and let's talk about it.

20 years old, Jason Dominguez, got off to a slow start at AA this season. And then from the beginning of July on, in AA, he hit 331 with five homers, 19 steals, in 891 OPS, got promoted to AAA recently, eight games at AAA for Dominguez, batting 444 with 10 RBI, two steals, and an 11-24 OPS, five walks in.

two strikeouts, plate discipline look good, very small sample size, obviously. He's 32% rostered. Welsh, I know this is someone that you are very excited about. Give us the entire scouting report. What do you think about Jason Dominguez, the player, whether or not he can make an impact this season over the final month of the year. And maybe what size leagues you'd be looking to at him, if any. I am excited about this because, you know, this was like the most highly touted prospect. He was so interesting in, if you ever paid attention to prospects, because the guy before him was Kevin Miton. You know, Kevin Miton was, you know, he's a crazy town.

He could be Miguel Cabrera as he kind of grows into his body. But this was coming from a lot of people that had not seen like him really in any period of time. And then also there was a brave scandal. And there was a lot of old reports. Dominguez kind of came off of that as this next like everyone's screaming about him. But we had continuously been seeing him. We had been seeing lots and lots of video and you had scouting directors, you know, obviously giving insane comps. But it's been a nutty path this entire way through the miners from sky high value to coming back down to people calling him a bust and he'd never amount to anything in one of the biggest overhype prospects of all time.

And guess what? He's coming into 20 years old off of all of that, all of that, stealing almost 40 bases and hitting 15 homers in a little over 110 games in the miners. That's kind of a live up to that entire hype. And when I finally get to see him in the NFL this past year, the results weren't there. They weren't there. He actually played some really poor defense. But one thing I noted, I tweeted about it. I got lots of videos of Jason Dominguez.

I just put out one was that he was consistently barreling up and hitting the ball really hard. Homer's taken away by wind. Obviously, you're going against much older competition and really, really difficult spots. But he was always hitting the ball hard. And then this year came out the gates, struggled. but he completely rebounded. 37 stolen bases in a row in AA this year in 109 games, hard-hit numbers nearing 29%

according to RotoWire's hard-hit data for him on the season, a walk percentage that's in the 15s, and he was hyper-aggressive on the base path. So all of those changes at this age and how the Yankees slow-rolled them at the beginning and then they just pressed Arizona Fall League, AA, AAA, AAA majors this year. It tells you a lot.

I don't think it's just gimmicky. You know, hey, let's get New York fans off our back and bring him up and have everybody shut up. It's not just gimmicky. This guy's a real deal. And it's going to be really difficult to live up to those expectations, but I think this is the type of guy that can do it.

I said this to you off air. You, I think, asked me this question a long time ago. And you were like, who could be the next L.E. Day, LeCruz. And I said, well, you know, you want like a physical comp, to it. James Wood. James Wood seemed like the guy from a prospect perspective. Six foot six, you know, lengthy can power run. But I think from a like stat standpoint, Jason Dominguez has an opportunity to kind of be that guy. They look completely different. Jason Dominguez is tiny. He's like a tiny shorter guy, but he's big, he's bulky, hits the ball hard. He runs like crazy.

He's super aggressive. And I think you're going to see some of that on display. I am worried about this isn't a prospect that these pitchers don't know. You know, there's plenty of prospects that come up and pitchers might not be aware. Everyone's going to know who this is. So what type of arsenal are you going to see? Are you going to see guys trying to beat him with fastballs? You're going to see more off-speed stuff. Will we see the April Jason Domingo's?

Their struggles could be in there. But you want to talk about rookies not living up to the hype, especially in redraft and contributing early on. We are seeing some of these guys do it. Parker Meadows is currently doing it right now. I felt in 12 team, five outfielder, I would have invested in Parker Meadows, most likely, Unless you got like somebody really decent, I would have speculated. I do the same thing here because what would be the reasoning that he's not going to play centerfield every single day from September 1st on as Harrison Bader is on the waivers?

There really isn't. I don't see it. So I think he can steal. I hope he hits for decent contact. Either way, I think this is a great opportunity for the offseason. If he struggles, I'm going to buy. If he plays well, I think I'm still going to kind of buy. And I'm going to pick him up right now.

I'm going to speculate that I can probably get. anywhere from maybe four to six stolen bases and maybe we get lucky that those power numbers continue to go. But this is the type of talent that you're going to want to probably push up on 44% I believe ground ball rate he had in double A. We don't care about the AAA numbers right now just because it wasn't a long enough run. Also, only a 16% soft hit percentage over on rotor wire, which is really a good thing to see as well. That goes along with the hard hit percentage. So I'm in. He walks.

He gets on base. He steals. hit some homers. I'm not dropping great stuff for him, but I would imagine most of you probably have some interchangeable players. So that was a big old diatribe for me, Frank. But I think there's enough to get excited about, especially in

Dynasty, but why would you not speculate who doesn't need stolen bases unless you're in a points league? You know, when you've started talking about him, you brought up the expectations and the player comps. And I remember when he was signed, he was what, like 16 years old or something like that? And people are talking about the next Mike Trout, the next Mickey Mantle, like all these kind of

Lou Gehrig. Yeah, like all these crazy comps for Jason Dominguez. And you're right, it's definitely been an up and down minor league career to this point. But again, the downs early this season and then obviously picked it way up. So it sounds like 12 team leagues, five outfielders or deeper. That's where we're looking at Dominguez. So obviously anything, you know, 15 team five outfielder leagues. I'm sure people are going to be looking to pick Jason Dominguez up.

Like why not? Yeah. Like what do you think you're losing? Like who are the type of player? Harrison Bader? Are you going to be Harrison Bader? Dominguez? Yeah, actually that's a great replacement.

If you had Harrison Pater in your lineup, would you take Dominguez ahead of other recent outfield call-ups, Parker Meadows, Wiliera, Abraeu, Seidon Raphaella, and Lawrence Butler? Yes on all of them. Parker Meadows is a little tough, coming off like a three-hit game. And I think Raphael is skill set looks really good, maybe a better contact hitter. But like to me like Parker Meadows, you might not get the stolen bases. You get that with Domingas. you know, maybe power questions with Raphaelah and maybe there's more with Meadows, you get that with Jason Dominguez.

Like the only struggle is going to be if he cannot hit major league, uh, breaking pitches and he hits a buck 30 and that kind of tears it down. But I would take a shot at it. I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to, uh, demolish my like starting roster and cut someone really good because I want to jump into height because this is an important time. But I would want to speculate on it, especially if he does get hot for three weeks. It's pretty easy to get and stay hot for three weeks. And this is a guy that I think could do that. So cautiously optimistic. All right. And Seidon, Raphael, by the way, did make his first career start on Wednesday.

He went one for four with a double, a run, and an RBI. Two hard hits in that game. The double was 107.1 exit velocity. Started against the lefty in Framber Valdez. And I said this consistently in the past couple days. I like the player. I like the skill set for Raphael. I just don't know if he's going to play enough,

especially with Abraeus coming back from the paternity league. and the Red Sox have this glott of outfielders and DH players that they need to kind of fit into the lineup. So I like the player long term. I don't know about the rest of the season for Ceyon Raphael. Let's talk about the Mets promoting 22-year-old Ronnie Maricio. That's coming on Friday. He's had a great season at AAA, 292 batting average,

23 homers, 24 steals, and 852 OPS, 91.1 average exit velocity at AAA. That's like top-not stuff. This is a big dude. He's 6 foot 3. He can move around the diamond, played 56 games at second base, 27 at shortstop,

27 in left field, two games at third base as well. So I think they're going to move him around a little bit. He's shortstop eligible on CBS for now, 25% rostered. Welsh, your thoughts on Mauricio, and who would you rather have?

Mauricio or Dominguez in redraft. I mean, I think, like, I didn't even let you talk for like six minutes. Like, I don't want to be the J, I'm not trying to be the Jason Dominguez guy, but like I was telling you off air, I was actually getting really excited for my prospect update

which I do on my Patreon at End ThisLeague.com, that in September, I was going to drop a seven. And I usually don't get, like, I get people that surpass you. Tell us what that means, though, by the way. You're going to move Dominguez up to your seventh ranked prospect, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I was kind of telling you, like, something that happens is I might get early on somebody. Example, Ethan Salas. I might be the first there.

And then you get like hyperaggression and someone will be like, well, I have him here and I have him here. I mean, pipeline went five. So I got excited because, like, I think I was about to be the most aggressive from a prospect. rank standpoint on Dominguez because I had moved him last week to seven overall and moving him into the top 10 and then he got called up and that kind of got taken away. So like my excitement level is there just because I really do think with how the game is being played right now, an approach and a short sample size of pitchers not readjusting that Jason Dominguez could like do some serious stuff. I like Ronnie Maricio. I did have somebody like some months back where I was talking about

Ronnie Maricio, a very respected name, not like him in the industry. It's as an industry person that is very well attuned to prospects and liked, if you pay attention to Orovis Martinez, kind of over him, kind of saying that like at the end of the day, like, I don't know what Maricio is. Maybe Mariso is only a 15-15 guy. The thing that got me excited about it, hard hit numbers are there, 29.2 roto wire hard hit percentage. K percentage, traumatic drop from where he's been in the past. I mean, at high A, he was a 24% strikeout guy in 2021, 18% this year. Highest walk rate of his career since rookie ball as well.

batting average is stuck and he's a 20-20 guy. I think there's a lot in there, but he does swing and whiff at a lot of stuff. So I do worry about that a little bit. I would take Dominguez here because I also worry about like, where's that playing time going to go and maybe they're going to, you know, ping him in different spots.

And I don't know, like Buck also would be like, hey, this is awesome to have this prospect. Sit for nine days. And then he comes up and he gets one start. And you're like, what the hell? Like I just don't trust that it's every day. And I shouldn't be so Pollyanna that Dominguez is going to play

every day, but they literally designated the center fielder that they've got for a guy that is going to be their future center fielder. So I'm taking assumptions here. Ronnie Maricio is solid. If he gets the playing time, he has proven to not strike out a whole bunch. I'm just worried that that batting average is going to sink. But he is a guy that could be, you know, I mean, showing a 2020 minor league guy at worst. He could be a 1515 at the major league level. So he probably sits in the vicinity of like maybe more exciting than meadows, kind of similar to. to Raphaela. If they both got the same amount of time,

I actually would probably prefer Raphaela over Maricio, but you got middle infield problems. Go do it. Maybe they'll surprise us and maybe they will play him a decent amount. Yeah, I personally do think he's going to play quite a bit. These two teams are in the same place right now. They're not really playing for much this year. They need to play their prospects.

See what they have in these guys and see if they're ready for an opening day roster spot next year. Both of them are switch hitters too. So I don't think that there should be much of a platoon kind of worry here for either Ronnie Maricio or Jason Dominguez. Last point on Maricio comes at a good time, too. He lost Boba Chet earlier this week. He went on the IL.

So if you play in a deeper league, you need a shortstop or a middle infielder, potentially some power and some speed there. Ronnie Maricio coming on Friday to the New York Mets. The last name here is Austin Wells, a 24-year-old catcher prospect, former first round pick back in 2020 with the New York Yankees. He was batting 240 with 17 home runs. and seven steals in the minors between AA and AAA this year. You look at the stack cast numbers at AAA, 88.7 average exit velocity.

That's okay. It obviously could be better. He walks a lot. He's got good play discipline. Strikes out a little bit. Well, she reminds me of a player who used to be on your Diamondbacks. You let me know if I'm off base here. A lesser version of Dalton Varsho.

I don't know if he's going to run as much, but just the tendencies. The pull, hit it in the air. He's got a little bit of pop. He's got that short porch in right field in Yankee Stadium. He's only 7% rostered. This is someone who we can look at in two catcher leagues, I think very clearly. I think he's going to get a chance to play at least against right-handed pitching. Your thoughts on Austin Wells.

Yeah, I think, I mean, Varsha definitely more athletic than him. And I think he only had a 33% pull rate and a 41% pull rate this year. So he wasn't pulling the ball a whole bunch. I think that was a little bit more Varsha's game. You know, it's funny. There was a report, too, about them wanting him to play more first base. And I mentioned this before, but I interviewed Austin Wells during the COVID year of AFL. And I remember I asked him that question.

I was like, hey, Yankees ever talked to you about playing a different position, maybe out here. And he's like, nope, he was a weird interview. It was one of my weirdest interviews ever. He was just like, nope, never happened. I'm a catcher. And I was like, okay, let's move on. And now they're potentially talking about him, you know, playing some first base here there.

I like Austin Wells. I don't get overly excited. I think the skill set thing that you were talking about plays in a little bit more. I think he's running a lot less. I mean, he's seventh sole on the bases this year. He had 16 the previous year. He actually has the highest hard hit numbers, according to Rotowire's hard hit strength of data, than either of the three players we've talked about, 30.6.

But the K percentage, it sits up a little bit higher. I think he's going to swing in whiff, and he struggled with consistent batting average. So, I don't know. There's like so many fun streamable catchers we've been looking at throughout the year from the Yanir Diaz and stuff. I'm not excited about Austin Wells. Maybe he'll hit into a couple. I think he's going to struggle the most mightily out of these three. So he's kind of at the bottom of this list.

Where Jason, I see five outfielder, 12 team. Maricio is like dicey. Maybe he had some real struggles. Maybe he had like Croninworth and you lost him. Maybe you could fit him in the 12 team. It's not five outfielder, but you know, 12 team type of league. I don't see it with Austin Wells. I'm not looking unless he gets hot.

Unless they show us they're going to consistently play him because there's other spots right now, where's it going to get those other spots? Outside of just filling in, De Jule Mahou at first, D.H. is kind of locked up. I just don't know if he's going to play every single day, so I feel less confident about him.

Yeah, this is just my take on the situation. I think he's going to at least be the strong side platoon at catcher for the Yankees the rest of the season. They have Kyle Higashioka. They have Ben Rort Vett, and it's just like, okay, those guys are clearly not part of the future of this team. So, again, like the other names. And to be clear,

Austin Wells is not in the same category of a prospect as, you know, not even close to like a Ronnie Mauricio or a Jason Dominguez. But I think if you're playing a deeper two-catcher league, Austin Wells is fine, but he's very clearly, very clearly behind like Yiner Diaz and even other names recently, Gabriel Moreno. Shea Langelliers is pretty hot right now. I would take Langelliers over Austin Wells as well. But he's a name that's coming as well. So New York prospects on the way should be here on Friday. New York, New York. Should have mentioned earlier. that we have a big announcement coming later on as well. So that's a little...

Can I stop you real quick? When you guys hear this, I got to hear this announcement. And I was like, what? Oh, there's two announcements, Welsh. Oh, is yours a different? Because mine, the one you told me, I'm like so excited about. I think it's very cool. It has nothing to do with me, by the way.

It has nothing to do with me. So yeah, there's actually two announcements. One I will reveal after the break. And then one I will reveal a little bit later on. But we will be back. right after this. Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball today. Announcement number one is that I will be interviewing

a former Yankees legend. I will not be revealing who just yet. If you want to find out who, then you need to keep an eye out on YouTube. So that's probably, maybe I'll drop it as a podcast as well, but it's definitely going to be on YouTube and someone I'm very excited to talk to

one of my favorite Yankees growing up as well. So a little bit of tease there, but I will be talking to a Yankees legend later on this week. Make sure to check that out on YouTube. Now, I know it's secret. I know a secret. I want to say it, but it's pretty cool.

That's the one I was like really stoked. I actually don't even know what the other thing is. I'm very stoked about this and I'm excited to see it on YouTube, even though I know who it is and all of you don't. All right. And let's get into Wednesday's action, actually. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, Welsh, you were up.

Your player the night from Wednesday. Oh, I forgot we're even doing this. We did all the fun prospect stuff. I'm going to throw DJ Stewart at you. This was, I picked up DJ Stewart in multiple leagues over the last week in need of, I played 16 teams, so I had a little bit more of a need for it. And I'm going to do this again, just whatever. It's this point of the year.

Stop getting mad at me. If you do get mad at me. But like, I have this little affinity for DJ Stewart. I told the story in ITL, Frank, that in 2016 in the AFL, DJ Stewart was a Baltimore Oriole. and Bogman and I were sitting in the outfield in the grass. I don't think you're supposed to do this. And we were recording. We were doing a podcast and DJ Stewart was the outfielder in right field.

And we were being so loud, he heard us and he turned over and he just gave us a what's up. And we were like, what's up? And we were trying to get his attention. And he always just stood out because he actually kind of looked, especially at that time, like Taz, if anyone's a wrestling fan from like ECW. He's just like this big, short, thick dude. And DJ Stewart is just having this.

resurgence of a career. Tonight he hit two homers, four RBIs against the Rangers, who I had money line bet in a little parlay here, in a 101 played appearances. He now has nine homers with a 279 batting average after tonight. And it's been it's been pretty impressive. He's got hits in seven and see if it counted tonight. It did not count tonight. So it's seven of his last eight games played. It's another homer, three homers in his last two games up. And you're also getting some pretty impressive underlying stuff. XBA, pretty in line, 266 to his 268 batting average. He's got a 15% barrel rate, hard hit rate, according to, I think both is between 48 and

49% between fan graphs and baseball savant. Big EV numbers, he's hit 108 on a max as an average of 92.4. Listen, this is the type of stuff that gets you an opportunity next year, but what do we care about next year right now when he is hitting and he is providing himself. everyday playing time. I don't think if they want to mess around and put Ronnie Marisu in the outfield like they have done in the minor leagues, I don't know at this point if it can be at the expense of DJ Stewart. This might really be something. When he's on the field, he's hitting at a pretty aggressive clip. Tonight was another sign of it.

You know, gotta play the hot hands right now. I think in 12, 15, you know, 12 team 15 outfielder, if you have got some struggles, you got some guys that are stanking it up. DJ Stewart is someone you should be looking at right now. And like, I said seven of eight games hits let's go especially if you need power to the last 13 games for DJ Stewart he's batting 378 with eight home runs 15 RBI 95.6 average exit velocity the only problem that I saw he's 7% rostered he's widely available the Mets only have five games next week so that's obviously a bummer three against left-handed pitching so is he gonna start two games next

week it's just I don't know that he I don't think he's an everyday player right now so that's a problem for him I think if you play in a daily up league and you just want to take advantage of okay when DJ Stewart is the lineup in the lineup I'll throw him in there and obviously he's hitting for a bunch of pop right now so yeah I don't think he should be ignored I think deeper leagues if you need power the name is out there but the schedule I think a little bit questionable for DJ Stewart I do played a lot of daily so I do want to point that out like I am I'm more of a daily guy than anything else so I have a lot of daily moves in it this week might be a little bit less but watch on it and a nice heavy right you know

right handed run here for weekly leagues I think he's a guy even if you're not playing him You can sit him on the bench, especially if you miss out on Dominguez. You missed out on Parker Meadows. You missed out on Raphaelah. Everybody's swooping up all these guys. Might not be the worst person to put on your bench for those right opportunities, assuming you have it. 15% barrel rate. Yeah.

It's the batter ball stuff, there's no denying that. It's can he make enough contact because there are a lot of strikeouts in DJ Stewart's game. Let's talk about Darius Vines. My player of the night, he had a very successful debut, and it came in Cores Field against the Rocky six innings, two runs, five strikeouts to one walk. He had 11 swinging strikes on 82 pitches. And you look at the pitch mix here. A four pitch mix, mostly three pitches,

35% cutter, 29% four-seeing fastball, 28% change-up, 7% slider. So just kind of barely mixed in that slider. He averaged 90 miles per hour on his fastball. So this is a very interesting prospect. Scott and I spoke about him yesterday. He's mostly known for his change-up. He has wicked swinging strike numbers

in the minors. He's an older prospect, 25 years old. Welsh, your thoughts on Darius Vines. He's 3% rostered. If he sticks around for next week, it looks like he's in line for two starts. What do you think? Do you know who they are? It would be against the Cardinals and Pirates. Interesting. I'm a little, I actually thought he was going to be an NFL guy. I'm a little indifferent, low K. This is one of those weird, like, high swinging strike, low K type of guys.

It's not an overtly awesome. fastball. I think the mix is really interesting. You know, you were talking about off air about, you know, the like a primary, primary high change up guys can sometimes struggle, even though Jordan Wicks, I think is someone that's going to kind of break that a little bit. Also not a guy that pumps like crazy velocity. But this is one of those guys that can move the zone. You know, you've got a cutter for your outside. You've got your four seam fastball and you got a change up to dip for your strikeouts. I think the pitch mix is nice. I was kind of waiting actually because I don't see it on Savant yet. I wanted to see like how.

big the movement on all the pitches were and we don't have any of that data that has dropped yet so that would be another thing but at the end of the day this isn't this isn't someone that i'm investing in spots starting against the pirates it's kind of interesting i don't think i really care about i don't know if i want to see a lower velo guy against the cardinals right now we saw price elder work for some time and he was a primary slider guy primary off speed pitcher and um vines one of those players with the low the the low max you know um velocity on the basketball. That's not my ideal type of guy, especially with an under 8K per 9 in the minor. So I'm probably a pass regardless of two starts. If you're desperate, those two starts you can maybe get down with. I do like that pirates start coming up if he gets it. Yeah, I think we leave it for very deep leagues right now, Darius Fines of the Atlanta Braves. And I do wonder how long he's going to stick around because Kyle Wright is currently rehabbing. So yes, good point. He could be back. I don't know. I don't think he'll be back next week, though. So that's why like the immediate, you know, if you're really desperate and you want to roll the dice on a two-star pitcher, it's risky.

There's no doubt about it. The guy throws 90 miles per hour. Let's talk about Ryan Pepio, who had another solid outing, and he was up against your Arizona Diamondbacks. Can we say our because I have a preseason bet over 75 and a half wins? So once we get that, I think we should be all right. This isn't the Packers. They didn't have team ownership. I don't know, no. I mean, we can say my Corbyn Carroll, but we can say us or we are our Diamondbacks all day long. Frank, please. All right. So let's talk about Ryan Pepio. Five shutout innings, two hits, one walk, three strikeouts and mostly leaned on the four-seem

fastball and the change-up in this start, but he does throw a slider that looks to be a pretty good pitch as well. It's a really small sample size so far. He's only thrown 14 innings in the majors this season, but the walks have been way down. The walks were down in the minors two this year when he was kind of rehabbing. I know walks and control in general has been a big problem for Ryan Pepio throughout the years. You know, down in the minors, but he pitches for the Dodgers, and that's kind of half the battle right now. He's 33% rostered. Also looks like he might line up for two starts next week at the Marlins and at the Nationals.

Two fantastic matchups. Well, sure thoughts on Ryan Pepio. I mean, National's definitely been turning it around, but yeah, I agree with you. I'm in that. I love the lower walk numbers. That's something that's huge. It's one walk per nine, 11K per 9 going into tonight, and then he ended up throwing a few more on there. Um, you know, something that's going to be interesting to watch.

This is actually a problem that, uh, the other side that, um, uh, Brandon Fott had earlier in the year was dealing with like ineffective fastballs. And like it was surprisingly effective in this one, only 22% swing and whiff rate, but a 14% outside the zone swing rate on the fastball, which was kind of what, um, we saw with Brandon Fought. And then when you had control issues and it not being around the zone, that equal to just absolute massive disasters. then he kind of fixed where he was pitching and that pitch became more effective. I'm a little bit worried if that fastball doesn't improve a little bit, where is it going to go? But they were just swinging through their shoes on the changeup. It did have a 28% swing and whiff rate, but a 50% outside the zone swing percentage. So he was burying that thing that they thought they were getting on top of the fastball.

And if he can continue to do that, Dodgers do wonder. There's great run support. He's not walking. He's showing great signs here. this is a guy that I think he toes the line even maybe a tiny bit above stream and the matchups that you just laid out

33% you tell me is there a better under 50% two-start pitcher that you can find for next week because I would be remiss that there is. Let's check it out. The early lean, obviously we'll learn more tomorrow when Scott does his two-star pitcher rankings

and yeah, let's see. Under 50% Brandon fought Actually He's facing the Rockies in Arizona That's good But then at the Cubs I kind of worry about that matchup

So I'd rather have Pepio I think at this point than Fott Even though Fawts You know turned a lot around I would rather go Pepio And that's again If he sticks around

Right? Because the Petre The Dodgers have been Kind of like manipulating these guys They bring up Gavin Stone They send him down They bring up Pepio

They send him down So I don't know if he'll stick around But as of now That's the way The matchups line up I'm assuming Gotta make your bets Got to make your bets right now.

We don't know. We don't know anything. You guys think like, oh, why are you wrong about it? We don't know. We're taking guesses. September, it's Wild Wild West. Teams are do, boop, bo, bo, bo. They're moving guys here.

They're changing these and all. We don't know. We're just making our best guess at this prospect is going to get that time. We're making our best guess at this pitcher who's pitch really well in his return will get to continue doing that for a team that is vying for a playoff spot. So that's why you would want to bet on a guy like Pepio.

But you're right. I'm assuming you would take Pepio over Darius Fines, correct? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Would you take Pepio over Jordan Wicks? See, the only small caveat to that is what you're kind of laying out here, that there's a little bit of a wildcard. I kind of think I might, and I might regret it a little bit.

I think that's a really close one. Do you think that's a close one? Or what side would you sit on in Pepe? Because I'm going to just say Pepio, but I think it is like razor thin close. I think I would lean with Jordan Wicks for the reasons you just mentioned. I don't know if Ryan Pepeo is going to be around for his next start. You're more worried. You're more worried that the Dodgers are going to screw with him not getting consistent.

And I think the upside is higher for Pepio too. Again, he's on a better team. He was, I think by all accounts, a better prospect than Jordan Wicks. But I think Wix is going to pitch. Like, he's here for the Cubs and, you know, they need some arms. So, yeah, I would probably take Wix. But if we're just looking at talent, I think Pepio is probably the better pitcher. Heads up, I mentioned this yesterday that we'll be recording a mailbag podcast later this week.

Scott and I will be doing that. That will serve as Sunday night's YouTube stream, Monday morning's podcast. We'll recap the long Labor Day weekend on Monday night. If you do have a question, you can send it into fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. That's the letter I, CBSI.com. Put mailbag in the subject line. Let's talk a few rookie updates here. Big game for Jordan Walker on Wednesday, 4 for 4 with his 12th home run, 3 RBI.

It's been an okay month for Jordan Walker, 265, 3 homers, 793 OPS. Wells, would you rather have him or Christian Encarnacion Strand, who also went 4 for 4, hit his fifth home run. He had 3 RBI, 4 hard hits in this game. The overall numbers, pretty underwhelming. So far, he's been striking out quite a bit. Who do you like more rest of the season?

Jordan Walker or Encanacian Strand. Remember, we were like, where's CES? And now we're like, all right, who else we got here? It's the entire Reds lineup. I mean, they are just all struggling right now. Yeah, you know, I think I might have easily right off the bat just said, go with Jordan Walker. The only thing is like with all the injuries the Reds are going with and you're putting like, what is it, martini in like like you're getting like weird dudes that are going in and hitting like five and stuff like that. It just breeds more opportunity with the injuries that are going on with the Reds and it's just a hitter friendly environment. I'm just kind of pulling up in Connocheon Strand. Walker has just been so inconsistent. I'm trying I want to find like the positive in where Walker's been, but it's really not. I mean he has five total hits since Austin.

August 21st and that spans over like seven games. So you have, and counting today that there would be a couple more hits in there. I think I'm going to go. If I'm trying to reach for power, I'm going to go for Strand. If I'm looking for a little bit more batting average, I guess I go with Walker. I'm cheating a little bit overall. I think I just go with Strand. I think this time of year specifically too, if you're just looking to stream hitters on a

weekly basis, you should look at the matchups heavily and the schedule. And next week, Encarnacio and Strand has six games at home. home. So obviously it's a great environment, great ballpark to hit in. He's 64% rostered. I think I'd be all right with making that swap. Walker is still 83% rostered. So he's on a lot of teams. You know what I would do? Obviously not next week because you laid it out, but give me the following week with like five righties. I'll go DJ Stewart over both these guys in redraft. Cut him easy for DJ Stewart if it is a bountiful week for Stewart upcoming. All right, fair enough. Let's talk about two other rookies. And what have they been up to so far?

Perrera with the Yankees went one for three with two RBI and his first steal, so pretty solid game for him. But in nine games played, he's batting 129 with a 390 OPS, only three walks of 14 strikeouts. He is hitting the ball extremely hard, 93.4 average exit velocity, but clearly it hasn't really amounted to much so far. And Lawrence Butler went two for four with a massive home run. It was his second homer. And yeah, he hit it 431 feet off of Bryce Miller. Any quick thoughts here on Pereira and Lawrence Butler? Yeah, I think this actually kind of like feeds to the people that are screaming about like, oh, man, these rookies and they just don't produce. Yeah, it's volatile. That's definitely what it is. That's why I'm not like the biggest

rookie guy in redraft. I love them obviously in Dynasty and how you can move it. But I don't know, I pick and choose my spots of where I want to invest in rookies. Are either one of these guys like holds for more than three days of struggle? I just don't think so. If I wanted to hold one, it's maybe Butler at this point. He's showing lower strikeout rates than Pereira. Perira has huge hard hit numbers, but it's like 40% strikeout rate early on. They got some other bats they might want to see. I don't know what the A's would be looking at outside of just letting Butler finish it out. So I would go Butler over either of them, but I think they are easily dropable for any hot bat that's starting to pick it up. Let's talk starter sick questions for starting pitchers start for next week.

And first up, we have Dylan Cs, who has given up four plus earned runs in five of his past seven starts. He was at the Orioles, gave up those five runs over six innings. It was a really bad first inning. He did settle down after that. He still had 19 swinging strikes. Whiffs are not the problem. Dylan Cease has been getting strikeouts all year. The walks, four point three walks per nine this year. Third highest among qualified starting pitchers. Dylan Cease's last seven starts. He has a 779 ERA and a 193 whip. He is only 56% started on CBS. Welsh. Do you bench him next week at the Kansas City Royals. Oh, man.

I mean, the royals have definitely had some of those outings where, like, they don't become heavy strikeout guys. You know what I feel like this is? If you can live with six innings, three walks, seven strikeouts with a little bit of variation, then I think you go. Could be four earned runs. Could be four walks that could be in there. I think those strikeout numbers can go there.

If I had to give you like a really direct answer, I just don't trust Dylan C. right now. I'm not sure what there is to trust. He's given up four or more earned runs in four of his last six starts. And the last two, Colorado and Oakland, or at least until the most recent, yeah, I think the most recent one. But on the 20th and 25th, you had Colorado and you had Oakland. So I don't know why you would trust him. If I am hugging ratios, I'm probably not going to start him. Cole Regens is a more trustworthy start than Dillon C's right now. And it's like, we all are like, yeah, duh. Well, okay, go back to when people were screaming about Frank and I saying that Dylan Seas wasn't going to be great this year. And after his very first start, all the victory laps that

were going on, if I would have told you Cole Regens going into September was exponentially a better start than C. She just said, we're crazy. But Cs has given us no reason to really trust with, you know, the major walk issues and consistent earn runs. And also, like, that offense is kind of a disaster as well. So I think there's more reason to not trust him than to trust. If you picked up Kyle Harrison, it looks like he is in line to face the Rockies in San Francisco next week. Would you start Kyle Harrison over Dillon C's? I would. I would do it too. I would, man.

I would do it too. I would like I didn't want to sound crazy. I would start Kyle Harrison in San Francisco against Colorado. Yeah. I'm not even sure I would think really hard about it. I agree with you. Let's talk about Chris Bassett who turned in one of his better starts of the season. Eight shutout innings against the Washington Nationals only have.

had three strikeouts in this one. He doubled his curveball usage, which seems like it would be a good idea. He threw it 23% of the time in this one. But in his previous five starts before this, a 440 ERA, a 124 whip for Chris Bassett. Next week he faces the Oakland A's in a revenge game. Obviously a great matchup too.

What do you think, start or sit? We're starting. You got to lay out what the scenario is where I don't start a pitcher against the A's. I'm not trying to, I would try Vines, Darius Vines, who just threw 90 miles an hour and start, yeah, I'll start him against the A's. So, yeah, I think there's plenty. I love little stupid revenge narratives as well, but yeah, Bassett has been like inconsistent this year, but I'm 100% starting him against Ayes and I'll feel good about it. Oh, yeah, I got one for you, Frank. Chris Bassett or Dylan Sees? Oh, I'm starting Chris Bassett. Yeah. Okay, there we go. Easy enough. Let's talk about Hunter Green, who had his best start since returning from the IL. He was at the Giants where he went five in a third innings. He allowed one earn. unearned run with six strikeouts, only one walk. That's obviously the very good news here for Hunter Green. But as I mentioned earlier, the Reds are at home all week next week.

Two starts against the Mariners and the Cardinals. Again, both in Great American Hallpark. What do you think about Hunter Green for next week? Oh, man. I mean, if like Julio's not there, I like it a little bit more if he weren't playing. I don't think I feel good about it. I think you've got to take your shots in the playoffs and stuff, but I feel like I'm buckling.

I know that next week is going to be a start of a lot of playoffs or some that are going on right now. Hunter Green can totally make a great week for you with like 9, 10 strikeouts, but I feel like there's just too much upside right now. Again, if you're playing it safe, you're hugging. If you got a two-week playoff run like some people like to do, I don't know, maybe I'd feel better about that, but Frank, I think I'm gonna lean like, no, I don't think I trust it.

I think it's circumstantial. I think in a points league, you might be able to get away with it, but... Good point. I'm talking Roto and head-to-head when I'm talking right now. You're right about that. But if you're in a categories league and you're protecting the ratios right now, I mean, this can absolutely blow up in your face, two starts in Cincinnati. So, yeah, I think it's kind of circumstantial here, but in general, I think I'd be pretty scared to do it with Hunter Green. Yeah, and one thing I want to point out, the, just, relatively obvious but like it's oh it is case by case basis like we have to talk in like affirmatives with not knowing you who's listening your situation like you might have better options you might have worse options so it's like you know if you're if you're sitting hunter green and you need the ending and you need to play for a win and you hear this and you're

like well so i should stop him and then i should start like this guy i should start you know whoever for the diamond i should start ryan nelson for the diamond like no you shouldn't do that so you do have to play the circumstances and know like on average we're not looking to do it or we're looking to pick up this player, but it doesn't have to be at the expense of like, you know, really good options out there. Hunter Green might be a need for you. You might have to get those endings.

You might need to play the strikeouts. It's just is riskier. He's, Dylan Seas is riskier. Hunter Green is riskier. I'd rather Chris Bassett over both of those players right now. And I chase strikeouts like crazy. Those guys are 10 strikeout plus potential guys on any given night, but they're just too risky at this point.

Yeah, it's a good point you bring up. too because this is a harder exercise to do. Everyone's team is so different. That's why it's kind of hard to talk about trades to in general. Hey, would you trade this player for this player? It's like, that might only help one person out there, right? Yeah. Because it's just like, it's so circumstantial. So again, when I do this, it's mostly for, you know, 12 team leagues, assuming that you have, like, decent other options. I'm not saying just bench Hunter Green for any like Joe Schmo that you would pick up, but, you know, Hunter Green for two starts or Kyle Harrison for one, against. the Rockies in San Francisco, like if you want to play it safe, I think Kyle Harrison's

probably the better way to go. So just to kind of put that in perspective. That's actually a really cool point you're mentioning. Would you rather those two dicey starts of Hunter Green in a points league or that one Kyle Harrison start? It's something. Points that changes this conversation up. It's something I struggle with a lot. I usually chase the volume in points leagues and just go with the two starts, but there are lots of times where it kind of blows up in my face. And then I always try to remind myself, like, don't start a bad two-star pitcher over a solid pitcher with one start. And I always try to remind myself that. And then I never remember. It's just like, it's just like, I never learned from my mistakes. But yeah, I do usually chase the volume in a

points league. Let's talk about Bryce Miller, who turns in a quality start against who? The Oakland A's. Six innings, three runs, five strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. Still did allow nine hard hits in this game. And next week has two starts. Another one. With all these pitchers, you see a theme, like Dylan C's, Hunter Green, Bryce Miller, there's a lot of volatility with these guys. They're fly ball pitchers. Bryce Miller has a start in Cincinnati and in Tampa Bay. Like, that scares the crap out of me for a flyball pitcher.

Yeah, and he's been a little bit diceier as of recent. And people are like really getting sick, I guess. I don't know what they're getting sick of, but I saw someone was like, oh, man, there's another, like, not good start. And he only gave up three earned runs. Like, people are really turning on Bryce Miller. He's been good as of recent, five earned runs over his last four stars going into the 25th. So that's not accounting for tonight where he gave up another three earned runs.

So, you know, that is technical quality starts. He had met the innings match over five starts. But I don't know, the strikeout numbers aren't necessarily there. He's been a little bit inconsistent with that. Five strikeouts tonight. But he had two of his last five starts. He had two strikeouts in those games. I agree with you.

You know what the game might be here, Frank? Rank the risky guys. Rank Dylan Seas, Hunter Green, and Bryce Miller. The two starts with matchups that don't feel great. Yeah. Well, Seas only has the one start against the Royals, but that's honestly... Oh, I thought we were playing him, Duel. That's the best matchup outside of Chris Bass.

I think Bassett is at the top of this list. And I would probably go... Oh, man, it's gross. I think I would go Sease Hunter Green and then Bryce Miller in that order. Seas, Hunter Green, Bryce Miller, and Kyle Harris, Kyle Harrison would be just behind Chris Bassett. So he'd probably be second on this list. Okay, so like they're the single tier. And I feel like there's another two pitcher that I was convoluting with C. So of the single tier guys, it's Bassett Harrison C's and then the two-star guys, you like Hunter Green over Bryce Miller.

Yeah, but it feels so scary, man. It feels really scary. Last name on this list is Dane. Looks like regression is kind of hitting Dane Dunning at this point. He was at the Mets. He gave up three runs over four innings. And over his last three starts, a 692 ERA and a 2.0 whip. I think this is a very clear bench against the Houston Astros next week. Yes, sir. Yeah, I completely agree with you.

I wouldn't want to touch this one. All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, we'll hit some news and notes. I've got some leftovers. We'll do that right after this. All right, welcome back. Let's talk some news and notes. The latest on Wander Franco, a special prosecutor in the Dominican Republic is in

investigating a second complaint and Franco was placed on administrative leave last week. Welsh, do you think he is an official drop in redraft leagues? I feel like that's kind of been the case for a while now. Oh, yeah. That's I think the minute he got put on it, you were good to go to make that drop. He is a 100% drop in redraft. And you know what? If something changes and he comes back, so be it. So be it. But especially if there's, I mean, I wouldn't even say this is like conditional. Like, you know, because I'll do that. I'll be like, hey, I wouldn't mind I drop a guy if there's nothing out there. There's probably like literally anything out there that is more worthwhile the risk than holding on that he comes back for what?

Like a week, you know, in your championship week? Nah, anything else. Wander Franco is still 86% rostered on CBS. Sure, some of those are like dynasty and keeper leagues where, you know, you're not going to drop him in those for now. We'll see what happens. But in any redraft Yeah, I think we're good to let go of Wander Franco at this point. Julio Rodriguez has missed two straight with a nerve issue in his left foot, which we don't I don't know. We don't know more other than that, but it sounds kind of scary. I hope it's not he's frustrated too. He had some thing where he was just like I just want to be out there like for me to not play. He's getting really frustrated. I do worry he's going to push it. You know, where they're going to be like, hey, listen, it's a little dicey. And he's like, I got to be out there. Obviously, we want him to be out there, but I just worry about like reaggravation. That's something that can pretty easily get rea.

aggravated. So monitor it and watch, but yeah, it's not fun. No, it is not. George Kirby will slot back into the Mariners rotation during this weekend series against the Mets. He was scratched on Tuesday with an illness. Jorge Saler was out of the lineup Wednesday with right hip tightness. Ryan Helsley is on track to be activated from the 60-day IL on Friday. Marcus Stroman did some long tossing on Wednesday the first time he's done any throwing since he was diagnosed with a right rib cage cartilage fracture. Say that five times fast. Right.

Rib cage cartilage fracture. Okay. Kyle Wright moved his rehab assignment to AAA on Wednesday. Mason Miller will likely make one more rehab start. He topped 100 miles per hour eight times during a scoreless inning at AAA on Tuesday. But only through like 29. He's not top. He doesn't even get to 50.

Like they're not pushing him on innings, which what's not going to look like? I know people like sitting around. I don't think, I don't know what interest I would possibly have with him coming back because he's not putting up any innings. So what the hell is that going to look like when he's at the majors? Two, two innings? He's not going to go five. How can he go five? I don't think so. I think it might be if you just want

like a bulk reliever for ratios and strikeouts, that's probably what you're looking at, but three to four innings max, I'm thinking for Mason Miller. Lane Thomas exited Wednesday because of back tightness. Jose Arkiti will remain in the Astros bullpen quote as of right now. That's according

to Dusty Baker. That means J.P. France should continue to start for them. Williare Abraeu is expected to rejoin the Red Sox lineup on Friday. Announcement number two. How can you forget about this one, Welsh? I read it and I was like, oh yeah, duh. This is something I've known about for a little bit. Well, it kind of became official.

Yes, it became official that I will be out at first pitch Arizona again this year. Of course, Welsh will be there as well because he lives in Arizona. For those who aren't aware, this is a four-day fantasy baseball conference in Mesa, Arizona, from Thursday, November 2nd, through Sunday, November 5th, and it's filled with all different things to do, activities. You get to watch Arizona Fall League games featuring some of the best prospects out there. As we've referenced many times, last year we got to see Matt Mervis

and Jason Dominguez and Lawrence Butler was out there and Zach Gelloff was out there and lots of fun names. Do we have any official announcements yet, Welsh? There's a couple names. I know some that we can't say. Alexander Canario, apparently that's been official with the Cubs. if you guys pay attention to him. That is locked in.

Cody Morse set. No big names. I should say this. No big names have confirmed. There's a couple little names that have publicly said it. They're announcing coaches right now, and I think we are close. I kind of feel like Friday, September 1st, that might be a really ideal spot. It could be next week because they're slow rolling some stuff.

But there's going to be some big names. I did a show I told you on my show Prospect 1 where I speculated who's going to be there. and I think we're going to have minimum two top 10 prospects that are going to be there I speculated five but I get I get kind of wild with that stuff but I'm excited to have you there

are you announcing any of the other things NFL? Yes, let's talk about what else will be happening while we're out there along with the Arizona Fall League games they have a home run derby which was awesome last year it's like we're just standing in the outfield

we're trying to catch you know home runs from like Heston Kirstad and Matt Purvis was in it last year. And it was awesome. And the famous home run guy. Remember, I put Frank on to this guy who only reason I'm bringing this up because I put Frank on, I told him this story. And then this guy this year made multiple news for broadcasters because he would run

around and go crazy and he would like push over kids and stuff. And he was next to, I think he wasn't he next to you and caught a ball in the outfield? Oh yeah. I saw him. He was big during spring training too. You would see him out of Yankee. games. It's just like wild. There's a Fall Stars game, so that's like,

you know, all of the best prospects from the Arizona Fall League. They'll play on that game on Sunday and all different kinds of panels and live podcasts. You know, we're in talks to do a live podcast. That's not confirmed yet, but if you're out there, you get to see a live podcast from the Welsh and myself.

And way too early drafts going on. The World Series is happening during that time. So, like, during nighttime, like everyone's just hanging around at the bar and we're watching World Series games and stuff. Again, it's first pitch Arizona. It's awesome. Highly recommend it.

It's presented by BaseballHQ. You can go to Baseballhq.com slash first pitch Arizona to find their current discounted registration rate for the weekend. That's $429 for all of that stuff that I just mentioned, four days of awesomeness.

And that rate runs through this Monday, September 4th. The price goes up after that. So if you do want to hop on, it's $429 for now. And that's through Monday, September 4th. First pitch, Arizona. it's going to be awesome.

And Frank told me he promises he will sign any autographs that anybody wants. Baseballs, bats, hats. He's going to, we might even have a session. We might have a table. If we may do or do not do a podcast, Frank's going to sign all the autograph. So however opportunity are you going to get to get Frank Stanfell's autograph? Just saying. I might be the first autograph ever where I signed something and that depreciates the value of whatever you gave me.

The ball's worth 20 and now it's worth like 10 because you wrote on it. That's exactly right. Let's quickly run through some waiver wire hitters. and who cares about waivers. Hunter Renfro went three for four with his 19th home run for RBI. He's 73% rostered. I can't give you a schedule because I don't even know which team he's going to be on.

So hopefully we find out on Thursday. But if he lands with the right team, with everyday playing time, might be someone we're interested in. So pay attention to Hunter Renfro. Jorge Polanco stayed hot two for two with two walks and two RBI. In the month of August,

he looks a lot like Jorge Polanco. Batting 283, five homers, two steel, in 887 OPS, he's 68% rostered, has second and third base eligibility. Welsh, I asked Scott this question the other day. Would you rather have Polanco or his teammate, Royce Lewis. Oh, Royce Lewis. I'm going to say that really quick. I was actually going to say like these waiver-wirey guys,

the thing to not forget about all this, you know, I get on and we talk prospects and blah, blah, is like don't forget about the old fuddy dutties and like how good they are for your team. And a guy like Jorge Polanco, Hunter Renfro even, they get lost in the mix. Rather have these guys than a lot of speculative shots. I'm going to go with Royce Lewis. Royce Lewis is on a thing right now and he's turning out. I'll take that upside of what he. But I mean, I want to make it like Polanco's not doing anything.

But yeah, it's Royce for me. I agree with you 100%. Michael Brantley in his second game with the team, second start with the Astros. So they're throwing him out there. Two for four with a double and two RBI. He's 13% rostered. The Astros have six games next week.

Well, else would you rather have Michael Brantley or your boy, DJ Stewart. Well, okay, next week, yeah, I would rather have Michael Brand. Michael Brantley, I think, better in a points league also, point that out. But yeah, if you gave me five games with three lefties or six games with the Astros with Michael Brantley, I'll easily go with Brantley. And the cool thing about both of those players is I don't think there's enough buzz that those aren't guys that are consistently available for you to stream.

And usually we talk about like streaming pitchers, but if you have, I don't want to say unlimited, but if you have like enough roster spots to move, Michael Brantley, DJ Stewart, those might be guys to pay attention to if you want to stream bats. All right. Well, let's get into the leftovers and we had two pitching duels on Wednesday.

It's time to do. First up, Brandon Woodruff at Kyle Hendricks, a battle in the National League Central. Brandon Woodruff, he just looks as good as ever. Six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes on 96 pitches. And Kyle Hendricks on the other side,

six innings, He's one unearned run with six strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes on 98 pitches, 11 of those on the changeup. Really lean into that change up in this start. 52% usage, and it has been an amazing pitch for Kyle Hendrix this season. He's got a 359 ERA, a 113-13 whip. We know he's not going to give you strikeouts, but he feels too undervalued right now. 59% rostered. I did this with Seth Lugo recently.

I was like, he's just like too under-rastered, like undervalued in fantasy. I feel the same way about Kyle Hendricks now who's in line for two stars next week against the Giants and the debacks. How about this? I would start Kyle Hendricks over any of the names that we spoke about during the starter sit segment.

Bassett, Seas, Hunter Green. I would start Kyle Hendricks over all of them the way that he's pitching right now. Ooh, I don't think I can disagree with you on that. Like, I do think he's in the same tier as like Bassett because I really like the matchups for Bassett and both Harrison for like strike. I do want to chase strikeouts more,

but I do think you're right. Like the Cubs are they're doing the thing. He's doing his thing. I think I'm going to go with the really low EVs, by the way, 85.1 average X velocity on pitches this year. So, you know, giving up a lot of like weak contact, that's probably a guy to make a good bet on, even though you won't get those K's.

Again, yeah, Kyle Hendricks is not, it's not a similar pitcher at all to like Hunter Green or Dillen C's. Like, if those guys pitch of their capabilities, they're better pitchers in Kyle Hendricks. I realize that. But in terms of floor right now, and you just, you don't want anything to go haywire this time of year. You got head-to-head matchups. I think Kyle Hendricks has a much higher floor than any of those pitchers that we spoke

about before. Another pitching duel was Zach Eflin against Jesus Lazzardo. Eflin went six shot-out innings with eight strikeouts. Hesuzlizardo also went six shot-out innings. I might have just wrote down the same exact line for both of these guys, and I don't think that's what it actually was. So I don't pull that up, but. Yeah, let's see. I'm pulling I'm pulling them both up as well, even though it's going slow. Okay, let's take a guess. Which do you think that line is for? That's Jesus Lozardo's line.

What was it again? Repeat it? Six shot out, one hit, two walks, eight strikeouts. Yeah, you're right. Because Eflin went six and one third, four hits, zero walks, four strikeouts. But also a great star. Any thoughts on these two? Yeah, I mean, I was a big Zach Eflin rest of season guy.

He's been a little inconsistent. Lozardo's been massively inconsistent. At the end of the day, Luzardo is been massively inconsistent. At the end of the day, Lazzardo kind of getting back to that whole strikeout thing. Like he is the better bet for big strikeout numbers and I think massive performances. Eflin's a little bit floored, but he can get you six Ks on a start. I think even though he's a little bit more volatile,

I would go with Lazzardo, hoping that he's carrying this into the end of the year with Eflin right behind him. But I think these are both two solid guys to bet on the rest of the way. Yeah, I agree. I think both top 40 starting pitchers, Lazzardo has the stuff. It's just can he command it? And when he loses command, that's when he gets hit. hit hard and stuff, but just in terms of whiff rates on the slider and the changeup, I mean, Jesus Lazzardo is up there with some of the best pitchers in baseball.

One other pitching left over wanted to mention Sunny Gray, the dude is on a great run right now, seven shutout innings, five strikeouts against the Guardians, his last eight starts, a 244 ERA, a 0.91 whip, and right around a strikeout per inning. So Sonny Gray looks like he's kind of setting himself up to be a potential league winner. He really has been all season. I think he was like a post-200 pick or post-250, and he's been really, really good this year. It's been a Twins pitcher all year long. They just, like, Sunny Gray was quietly sitting there where we were all ooing and awing over Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan, and he just keeps doing it.

Some hitting leftovers. Stop me if you've heard this before. Third day in a row, Trey Turner and Bryce Harper have each homered. Bryce Harper updated numbers in August, batting 361 with 10 homers, 24 RBI, and at 1236 OPS. I'm facing him in a one week head-to-head playoff matchup and I feel terrible right now. Trey Turner, just kind of looks like he's coming around. 24 games since he got that standing ovation in Philly,

batting 365 with nine homers, 21 runs, 26 RBI, two steals. Kind of feels like he's back. First rounder next year? I keep saying I want to see more speed, but he's hitting for power. Scott may have been talking about the second round, like early to mid-second round pick, do you think? Yeah, I mean, I was curious if you would push him into the first. I think that's

right. I think that's about the spot. It honestly might come down to how he finishes the year. Like, if he finishes this hot the rest of the season, then yeah, he'll probably be a first round pick again. So, yeah, we'll see. What else do we have here? scrolling up and down. Teascah Hernandez, one for four with his 23rd home run. He's also having a huge August. And Glaver Torres, two for four with a sock and a shoe, his 23rd home run, his 13th steel of the year. I wanted to mention Luis Robert. Just feels like the guy has. has been amazing. No one talks about him

because he's on the White Sox and they stink. But he went two for five with his 35th homer. He's got 17 steals. He is currently the 10th overall player in Roto, sixth best outfielder in that format, the ninth best outfielder

in head-to-head points league. Who would you rather have Luis Robert or Trey Turner next year? Oh, gosh. You can't do that to me. Yeah, I think I know what the answer is. Oh, I think so much of it depends on how Trey Turner finishes out the year.

El Pantera. You think it's Louis Robert? I think it's Louis Robert. Even though it's a worst context of a team, I think this is Robert. To be totally fair, though, I think that they're going to go in a similar range. Like, late first round. I think they're going to be within like four picks of each other. Late first, early second round picks for next year.

Five outfielder, though. Five outfielder. Yeah. For sure. The Braves, by the way, hit three more home runs. And I think I heard this on the broadcast that they are, they're trending. They're on pace to break the home run. record. Tonight they set the Braves all season record for most home runs hit in the season

by a team. August 30th? On August 30th. They did that. The Braves season long record, they have already broken that. And there's like a month left to go. And they're currently on pace to beat the Twins record from I think three or four years ago, whatever it was. What do you think? Who's like the four? Because like, Ozone hit his 31st. Riley's in the 30s, right? Olson is obviously up there. Akuna has 29. Okay, is there an oak do you think there's a Oakland A that has 29 homers that I'm just not thinking of right now and you're gonna blow my mind like the fourth home run hitter on the Braves how many teams leader have less than the fourth home run hitter on the Braves a lot Well, not a lot, but the nationals have a 29 home run hitter right now. Absolutely not. No. No, no absolutely not. Not the A's, not the nationals.

Tigers are probably close, but I don't think they do. Yeah, I think Torque hit is 24th or 25th today. Also, uh, the, the pirates. Brian Reynolds, maybe has 20. I know, I think there, I mean, there's a handful of teams that don't even have what the fourth home run hitter on the Braves. It's a useless stat, but it just, it's, it's interesting. of looking at like how impactful that team has been. And that's not even counting Ozzy Albies, who was on like a nutty home run kick. That team is stupid.

Yeah. The Colts of the bullpen. There's a lot here, but nothing really crazy that stood out to me. I guess the Texas Rangers is the team that we're kind of monitoring the most right now. And Will Smith recorded five outs across the eighth and ninth innings

with the game tied. Aroldis Chapman got the 10th with the game tied. He intentionally walks Pete Alonzo. He unintentionally walked Francisco Alvarez. and then he hit DJ Stewart with a pitch. Game over. Base is loaded, hit by pitch with no outs. And yeah, it's kind of a mess right now for the Rangers in general, but also for their bullpen.

I still think Chapman probably gets the next save opportunity, but it hasn't been great for him. He killed a bet for me too. I also just say Andres Munoz, it was very nice to see him be able to strike out one, and he got his 11th save, just been kind of inconsistent and some worries about him. Seeing him lock down that was nice. To stream or not to stream Thursday, we only have got. Four games on the schedule. So I would say probably avoid Thursday for streaming if you can.

But if I have to choose, I would say Clark Schmidt at the Tigers and Yohan Adone against the Marlins. Yeah, I'll go with you with Clark Schmidt. Everything else, no thanks. On Friday, Jordan Wicks is at the Reds. We've got Dakota Hudson against the Pirates. Patrick Sandoval at the Oakland A's? I feel like those three are okay. Ryu, but he's at Colorado.

I can't do it. He pitches to contact too. Yeah, I could do Jordan Wicks and I could do Sandoval, and I think I'm going to stop there with those guys. All right, fair enough. For the Welsh, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.