Fantasy Baseball Today - Joey Votto's Return, Henry Davis in Right Field & Pitchers That Got Destroyed (6/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

The Reds have won nine in a row and Joey Votto still bangs (2:45)! ... Henry Davis made his debut in right field and apparently he's going to spend a lot of his time there (8:18). ... Corbin Burnes got hit hard on Monday (13:50). ... Add Brendan Donovan or Geraldo Perdomo (24:27)? What about Yainer Diaz in two-catcher leagues? ... News (33:38): Yordan Alvarez did some stretching. ... Is it possible to sell-high on Michael Wacha (38:22)? ... What's going on with Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte this season (42:00)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, streamers and Team Name Tuesday (45:55). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Bid on fun FBT experiences as part of the Fantasy Football Today Draft-A-Thon, supporting St. Jude. Here's a spot in one of our 2024 FBT listener leagues: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754477549?hash=item57411b85ed:g:5p8AAOSwy8lkiJds Bid on a guest spot on Fantasy Baseball Today: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754456105?hash=item57411b3229:g:P0MAAOSwA~JkiJg3 Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Scott White: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754554172?hash=item57411cb13c:g:b-IAAOSwNLNkiNXc Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Chris Towers: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754517228?hash=item57411c20ec:g:gpgAAOSwObJkgO26 Bid on a 2024 pre-draft zoom call with Frank Stampfl: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374754521463?hash=item57411c3177:g:IjMAAOSwOkNkgO14 Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. That's now nine in a row for the Big Red Machine, your Cincinnati Reds. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, June 20th.

Frank Stamphold joined by Scott White. on the show, The Return of Joey Votto. A bunch of pitchers got destroyed, Corbyn Burns, Team Name Tuesday, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating

on Apple or Spotify. Let's jump in. Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my goodness gracious, Scott. Cincinnati Reds have won nine in a row. And for some reason, weirdly excited about when bad teams turn around. I like watching it. I like watching the young players come up and succeed. Old players come up and succeed in his first game. I don't know.

It's just like really exciting for me. I don't know if that happens for you at all, one bit. Yeah. That's nice to see. It's exciting. You know, the Mariners a couple years ago, they were kind of that team. The Orioles last year were kind of that team. I can't say I would have imagined. Well, I guess the Pirates have lost seven in a row now, but the Brewers are in the mix there. But it kind of feels like the Reds and Pirates of all teams are duking it out for the NL Central title and competing with call-ups. Pirates obviously just promoted Henry Davis. Their very high-end prospect, the number one pick in the draft two years ago, after the Reds had their slew of call-ups.

That maybe wouldn't have happened if that division wasn't so up for grabs. But it is. The Reds are now in first place. The Pirates, technically in third, because the Brewers are in that mix, too, like I said. But they're only three games back. They're very much still in the thick of it. It's fun.

And, you know, the only team in that division with a positive run differential is the Cubs. Are they in fourth place, I assume? They're in fourth place. The Cardinals are last. Cardinals are way last. What a mess. Anyway, the two, you know,

two of the names that the teams that you just spoke about there will be players from our oh my goodness gracious segment here. I'll just start things off. I want to talk about Joey Votto and I realize the most likely outcome is that a 39-year-old first baseman probably will not matter all that much. But there is a chance. He made his return. He went two for three with a walk and obviously his first home run of the season. He had three batted balls of at least 102 miles per hour. and if you look at his rehab assignment, his most recent one, when he started things back up, he played 12 games in June at AAA, was not very successful. He was betting 162. He was walking a lot.

He had 12 walks at 385 OBP. Last year, only hit 205. Seems like he might have been playing through some injury. But two years ago, this guy hit 36 home runs with a 938 OPS. It was a different environment, a juice ball, whatever you want to say. I'm not calling him a must add by any means, Scott, but I think there's a chance that he has value here. Joey Votto, 11% rostered,

and the Reds were tied for the fourth most run scored in June entering Monday. So if he's batting somewhere in the middle of that lineup, there's going to be opportunities, you know, maybe in a rotos-sized lineup as a corner infielder or something like that. I think there's a chance here. What do you think on Joey Votto? I mean, we can't rule out the possibility. I was most impressed by the fact that he had three batted balls,

102 miles per hour or more. The home run itself was the 102. Then he had a 104 mile per hour lineout, a nearly 109 mile per hour single. And he was squared up the ball for sure and showed that he still can put a jolt in it. Even at 39 years of age, will he do it with any consistency?

I doubt it. And, you know, if I'm being honest, if I'm, if I'm being raw and, uh, what's the word, transparent. I hope he doesn't. Ah. I said it. There are a lot of people celebrating that home run Joey Votto hit tweeting out. Bad take.

You know, tears streaming down their face as they celebrated his trip around the bases. Oh, it's so beautiful. Joey Votto. It is. But I was thinking about Christian Incarnatian Strand and what this means for him. Yeah, he could play in the outfield, Scott. It'll be all right. Well, why isn't he playing in the outfield yet, Frank?

Because he just started there. I think, what, last week on Thursday? Why isn't he playing DH? I mean, Spencer Stier was in the line of today in the outfield. So there's room for Incarnacion Strand right now. I understand there's room for him right now. now, but if Joey Votto proves to be integral to the lineup, that's one less opening. I don't know what's going on. I don't know why Ancarnacio Strand isn't up yet. I do agree that

if they really wanted him in the lineup, they could find a way. But, you know, this complicates it a little bit. I don't like complications. That's fair. I know coming into the season, the Reds said that they wanted to play Tyler Stevenson a bunch at DH to keep him from catching, as many games as he has in the past. So I think that's part of the reason they kind of want to leave that spot open for him. And looking for being honest, Spencer, Sear and Christian Encarnacian

and Tranusian in your outfield, it's probably going to hurt your defense for your pitching. Not that the pitching is great for the Cincinnati Reds anyway. But yeah, I'm sure that wouldn't, that won't help things. So they're going to need to outslug teams. They might have a better chance of doing that

with CES in the lineup. Scott, if you're looking for a corner infielder, obviously we just spoke about, Ovado, would you rather add him or Tristan Casas? Because Casas is actually doing some interesting things right now and I hadn't really noticed. He went two for five with his eighth home run of the season and the homer in this game 110.8 exit velocity, 419 feet. And in 39 games since the start of May, Tristan Casas is betting 264 with five homers, 92.6 mile per hour average exit velocity and a 16% barrel

rate. So it hasn't really translated to big production yet, but he's walking a lot, and he's clearly squaring the ball up. What do you think about Casas versus Vado for a corner infielder? I mean, I've been keeping an eye on Casas. I didn't know the eggs of velocity since the start of May was quite that high. The fact that he has just five home runs during that stretch, that, what, 39 game stretch, I think is kind of overshadowed how hard he's hit the ball. but the play discipline is good and yeah the batting average has been going up very slowly. I just don't think there's

a lot of competition for Tristan Kossis right now. So I don't see really any incentive to add him. But I'm keeping an eye on him. I think if you're forcing me to add one today, it's probably Votto because he's the one garnering all the attention right now.

But I'm not that wild about adding either. Okay. And I think in your standard size, Points League lineup or even like a head-to-head categories type format, neither of these guys probably matter for you, but just names to pay attention to. And, you know, if you do play in a deeper league and you need a corner infielder. Again, Votto there and Tristan Kossis. Oh my goodness, gracious for you, Scotty. Well, I already referred to him. It's Henry Davis of the Pirates. Again, the number one pick in the draft two years ago. He's a catcher primarily. That's

That's how he was drafted. That's what he mostly played in the minors. But his major leg debut came in right field. And he looked pretty good. He got a hit a double. It was a hard hit ball, which always gives it more credence. 106 miles per hour is how hard that double was hit. He also had a 105 mile per hour lineup with an expected batting average of 750.

So in my mind, he was really two for three with a walk. rather than one for three with a walk. But either way, it was a nice debut for Henry Davis. What really made me say, oh, my goodness gracious, though, again, he started in right field. And it sounds like that's where he's going to play most often. They are willing to hamper his development at catcher to get his bet in the lineup. That's how invested the pirates are in 2023, baby.

They got to, they're going to let Henry Davis play primarily off the field. Now he's going to work at catcher like inside sessions and maybe he'll get a start here and there. Hopefully he gets enough appearances at catcher that he'll still be eligible at the position next year. But it sounds like he's going to play a lot. Sounds like he's going to play more than the average catcher even. He's catcher eligible right now, if nothing else. Might as well enjoy it. I've moved him up to 11th in my rest of season catcher rankings.

I moved him ahead of Tyler Stevenson, ahead of MJ Melendez, ahead of Cal Raleigh. And I think he could keep rising from there. We'll see if he really does play every day in right field. And if he continues to produce like he did here on Monday. So I moved Davis up to 14th, not as aggressive yet, but if we see a couple of good games and the fact that he is going to play as much as he is, then I could see making a similar move, getting Henry Davis inside the top 12, maybe even top 10 at the catcher position.

And yeah, my mind started thinking about, you know, next year and dynasty leagues and having that catcher eligibility. And, you know, that's what I think made us even more excited about his value was that he was a catcher that can provide a positive impact offensively. Right. It's, you know, there's only a finite amount of those. So that to me, that was what was pretty exciting about him, I guess, from a dynasty perspective. So I don't know that that's necessarily true because this is something I've written about. more often over the last couple years in my dynasty writings. And I noticed in a prospect's report I wrote just earlier this year about Henry Davis, how he may not end up being the team's long-term solution at catcher, but that would actually be better for his dynasty value.

If you ever do a dynasty draft, a prospects-only draft for a dynasty league, you'll notice catchers slide way down the rankings. It's just even if, first of all, it's hard for them at that grueling position. to live up to their potential offensively. And even if they do, a lot of times their at bats are limited. And so that drives down their value. Even a really good hitter at the catcher position, it's rare that he's a hugely impactful fantasy player.

And so if you have a bat that's as good as Henry Davis seems to be, 433 on base percentage in the minors this year, has easy power, all the scouting reports say, you'd probably rather see him move off catcher and become like a true everyday player in another position. It's just going to be a safer profile. And if he does live up to the full extent

of his potential offensively, he's going to be a higher-end player overall. I could see both sides to it. I guess selfishly, I was thinking about just having another catcher in the pool that gets at-bats at other positions, whether it's D.H. or right field, whatever it might be, you know,

something like adult. and Varsho entering this season, right? He was a third or fourth round pick and a lot of, you know, roto-type drafts. And I could see Henry Davis eventually making an impact like that. It's just, I feel like his value would be elevated if he still had that catcher eligibility.

And I guess there's at least a chance now that, you know, for years to come, maybe he won't. Whereas, you know, I don't think we really kind of considered that until now. That's probably the best of all worlds if he's an everyday player elsewhere, but still making enough appearances

is a catcher to retain eligibility there. And maybe that'll still happen. But I don't think it's, I don't think the sky is falling in dynasty leagues. If it turns out, Henry Davis is, is an outfielder. All right.

Oh my goodness gracious. Shout out for Luis Arise, who went five for five again. You know, some guys, you know, they'll have a couple of five-hit games in their career. That was his third five-hit game of this month.

I mean, what Luis Arise is doing. from a batting average perspective. I know he doesn't provide much power or speed. He's really good in points leagues. But the batting average is back up to 400 on the season for Louisa Rise. And he's been awesome. Great, you know, great trade.

I think, I guess for both parties, we'll talk about Pablo Lopez. He's been very up and down this season. But I think Luis Arise has provided exactly what the Miami Marlins were looking for. A bunch of pitchers got destroyed here on Monday. Where do we start? I guess all the way up at the top, Corbyn Burrins. Going up against that feisty Arizona Diamondbacks lineup allows seven runs over five innings pitched. Six of those coming in the first inning, they just jumped on them and it kind of snowballed from there.

Did not have the cutter working in this one where, you know, if Corbyn Burns doesn't have his best pitch, you know, like most pitchers, probably not going to work out very well. Gave up a lot of hard contact on that cutter in this start. And it is his first time allowing more than three earned runs since May 22nd. So he's been pretty consistent recently, but you know, Scott, it's just kind of another blemish on a season where kind of like Sandy Alcancor, we were talking about him yesterday. It's June 20th and Corbyn Burns has an ERA near four. It's just obviously not what you drafted him for. I don't know what, you know, do you have any latest thoughts here on Corbyn Burns following another disappointing start?

Well, as he said, it was the first disappointing start in a while. He was on a really nice trend before then, a really nice trend with the velocity on the cutter ticking up. And it was basically back to where it was last year. It was 94.9 is what he averaged on the cutter in this one versus 95 last year. Granted, it wasn't playing very well for him in this start, as you pointed out. But I think the overall trend is encouraging. And I was actually prior to the podcast writing an article about bounce backs

and just players who've struggled most of the same. season and appear to have come around recently and how much I'm buying into it, basically. And Corbyn Burns was among them. I decided to take him off after seeing the way the start was going because it's harder to make the case. He's bouncing back. But like, no, legitimately, I do think he is trending the right way. And I moved him back into my top five at starting pitcher rest of season.

And though I removed him from the article based on this start just because it's more than I want to have to explain. Here on the podcast, I will explain that I do think he is fine. Okay. Two other pitchers that got hit hard on Monday that I'm not really worried about. Jose Barrios gave up five runs over four innings pitch. He still had 12 swinging strikes on 100 pitches. Not like he gave up a ton of hard contact in this one.

And it was Barrios's first start allowing more than three earned runs since May 1st. So has been very consistent over the past. month and a half and Hunter Brown was the other one. He's actually been a little bit more inconsistent. The overall season has been very impressive to do what Hunter Brown has done as a rookie. I get it. But this is now the fifth time that he's allowed four or more earned runs in a start this season. Hunter Brown gives up six runs over five and two thirds up against the New York Mets. He does give up a good amount of hard contact here. Anything to see, Scott, any, I guess, concern over Jose Burrios or Hunter Brown in these outings.

No, as you pointed out I mean, Berrios had been very reliable his previous 12 starts he had a 227 ERA That's basically the whole season Just his first two starts of the season were bad And then he had 12 starts where he put together a 227 ERA So it's a rare misstep for him

And one where the whiff rate was still fine 12% still 87.2 was the average X velocity That's fine Don't see anything to worry about here for Jose Burrios. Brown has been inconsistent, and I don't really know what to chalk that up to,

other than just growing pains, rookie year, all of that. His last start, he threw seven shutout innings. So that just goes to show you how up and down it's been. But he's an elite ground ball generator, which is not something I think we've talked about much. His ground ball rate

is 56.3%, or at least it was coming into this start, that I imagine would put him in the top five and all of baseball. And for being such an extreme ground ball guy, he gets a lot of strikeouts, nearly 10 per 9. That's a good combination. That's that Framberra Valdez combination. I mean, even a better strikeout,

not as good of a ground ball rate as Framber Valdez, I guess, but an even better strikeout rate. Logan Webb's kind of in that category, too. Brian Beaux looks like he might be entering that category, too. That's why I'm so excited about him. And Hunter Brown's in it as well. So overall, I like the profile, and I think you just got to accept a few misses along the way. That 56.5% groundball rate ranks sixth among qualified starting pitchers this season for Hunter Brown.

Close enough. I was just letting you know, Scott, it wasn't like me correcting you. It was just, yeah, he's sixth. The one thing, if I'm just picking Nits here with him that I've noticed, is he does walk a decent amount of batterers, 3.1 walks per nine, and he does give up a lot of hard contact. mile per hour average exit velocity on the season. So, you know, in certain starts where he's not missing as many bats, maybe those are the ones that can get away from him a little bit, but again, he's been really, really good for most

of the season. Two other names that got hit hard, but I don't really think it matters much because I just don't know that they are going to provide much fantasy value moving forward. Josiah Gray, six earned runs allowed over five innings pitched up against the Cardinals. And on the other side, Jack Flaherty, six and a third, 10 hits, six earned. runs. We've talked about both of these pitchers quite a bit, Scott. It's a lot of inconsistency. We're expecting regression to come for Josiah Gray. So I don't know that there's much to see here with either one. Well, it hadn't come yet for Josiah Gray for what it's worth.

And he was a two-star pitcher this week. So I'm sure a lot of people started him. I had him as one of the sleeper pitchers for this week, acknowledging that the other shoe is going to drop at some point. So I covered my bases there. But he didn't really fail in the way. you would expect him to fail. He only issued one walk, right? Or zero walks. Can't find the numbers here. One walk in this one, yeah.

One walk in this one, yeah. One walk could find. Some walks have been an issue for him, and though he gave up a bunch of hits, 84.7 was the average X velocity, so it wasn't getting hit hard. I think his move from primarily a four-seamer to a sinker was a good one to help prevent the home runs. He's been trending that way, and that's good. but I'd like to see him throw the slider and curveball more, working those breaking balls a bit more,

because there's still good swing and miss pitches for him, and maybe he could be the best of all worlds if that happens. But until we see evidence of it happening, I think he's going to remain pretty fringy. Jack Flaherty also didn't struggle. After his last start, I said, what looks like the remaining issue for Jack Flaherty is just throwing strikes.

He threw enough strikes in this start. He threw 65% strikes, which is fine. But he got hit hard. And while Corbin Burns, Cutter didn't appear to be working for him today, Monday, Jack Flaherty, Slider seemed to be the culprit. Zero whiffs on an 105 mile per hour average X velocity on that one pitch. And that's not going to work if that keeps happening. So it's just something or other seems to go wrong for Flaherty every time out.

It seems like. I retain some hope that'll change, but not to the point that I'm willing to put him in my lineup, obviously. The last name on this list here, it didn't exactly get destroyed, but just another disappointing outing for Pablo Lopez. An uneven start.

He had nine strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes. Obviously, you love to see those two things. He still gave up five runs, four of those earned, over five in two-thirds innings. I think he left at the time. There was only three runs allowed,

and then the reliever allowed some of those runs into score as well. So didn't exactly help Pablo Lopez here. I don't, everything I look at Scott, the swinging strike. rate, the underlying ERA estimators, everything still really likes Pablo Lopez. The one thing that I continue to notice, his four-scene fastball is bad. I almost wonder if it would be best for him to

just get rid of it. Throw a sinker, sweeper, change up, curveball, make that your pitch mix. His fastball got hit hard again in this start. It's, you know, allowing over a 500 slug percentage on the season. It seems to be when Pablo Lopez gets in trouble. It's because his fastball gets hit. Yeah. Still, you think that would be reflected more in the data. The fact that all the ERA estimators like him is

pretty weird. So he has a 440 ERA now. That's compared to a 349 FIP, a 352X FIP, and a 317 XERA. That XERA was actually entering the start. So it might not be exactly 317 anymore, but it's really good,

is the point. And despite that he keeps struggling. Over his last 11 starts now, it's a 54080 RA for Pablo Lopez. It's bad. That is bad. Yeah, that's bad.

That's really bad. There's no way around it. I don't know. I don't know what to do about it, you know? I agree. I mean, he's been one of the... I don't feel confident enough calling him a buy low. I'd be more likely to do that than selling low,

but we kind of went through this a little bit with him, last year too. So look, if you are someone who likes to trust the process and the underlying numbers, then you should be buying on Pablo Lopez. But at the same time, I can't really blame you because this has been a pretty long stretch now where he's been very underwhelming for fantasy baseball purposes. Before we hit the break, we have, you know, look, the Reds are not the only team streaking right now.

The San Francisco Giants, just Mike Yershremski just hit a three-run, walk-off home run in the 10th inning. And the Giants have now won eight games in a row coming off of. a sweep of the LA Dodgers. So good for them. It's interesting time in baseball. Let's take our first break. When we return, we will hit some Waverwire hitters here on Fantasy Baseball today.

Welcome back. And a quick reminder to sign up for our Fantasy Baseball today newsletter. If you haven't already, CBSports.com slash newsletters. You click on the FBT logo, punch your email in, and that will get sent right to your inbox every day. It's free. Deliveres a bunch of news, items from the rundown, different. statistical anecdotes, all kinds of fun things.

And again, it's free. If you're watching on YouTube, scan the QR code in the top right corner. That will take you right to the website to sign up for our FBT newsletter. Let's talk about some waiver wire hitters, Scott, here. And some middle infielders, guys have different kind of eligibility. Brendan Donovan, I brought him up recently, Scott.

He said, eh, not really buying in yet. Need to see more. He went one for four with his seventh home run. In the month of June, he's betting 302, two homers in 833 OPS. He's 63% rostered. The other name here is Geraldo Perdomo. I think I brought him up last week when you were not on the podcast.

He went two for three with two walks and a run scored. He has now let off three straight for a lineup that has scored the fifth most runs in baseball of this season. Perdomo is betting 300 with five homers, seven seals in 882 OPS. The problem is that Statcast does not buy it one bit. They say he is like the worst hitter of all time. Scott, if you're speculating on one of these, I don't know, multi-eligible,

eligibility guys, is it Brendan Donovan or Haraldo Perdomo? I think it's Donovan. I think it's Donovan. There is, let's see, it's been a while since I've looked at Perdomo. But that's a close call. Because they're actually pretty similar in terms of the,

offensive profile. You know, Perdomo, five homers, seven steals, a 406 on base percentage. He's actually done a better job getting on base

than Donovan this year when that was the main thing Donovan was good at as a rookie. So, I don't know. I mean, I don't think either of them

are especially high end. And so we're talking about pretty deep leagues where you'd even look into them in the first place. Let's see. Okay, so this might be, I guess maybe

I'm leaning, slightly toward Perdomo now. Okay. But they're both pretty low end. All right. Should we do anything with Jaron Duran? He's quietly turned it back on. He went three for three with two RBI.

And so far in June, he's betting 326 with six doubles, four steals, no homers. So that's the problem there. He's kind of a batting average and speed specialist. I guess you could say 885 OPS in the month. He's 34% rostered. Scott, do we do anything in Jaron Duran? Maybe re-ad him if he was dropped in a five outfielder league. Well, I mean, it was a nice game.

It was good to see. Facti batted leadoff was kind of unexpected, I guess. But, you know, who is out of the lineup for this one? Justin Turner. Justin Turner's been one of the most productive hitters in June. And so I don't think he's going to be out of the lineup that much. I don't know. Maybe this cuts into Adam Duvall's playing time.

Duvall hasn't done a whole lot since returning from the IL. and so maybe he could start losing at Bats to Duran, but I'm sorry, Duran, not Duran, Duran, Duran somebody else. So maybe he could start losing at Bats to Duran, but as of now, this was only Duran's fifth start in the Red Sox's last 10 games. Yeah, so it does kind of limit what Jaron Duran could do there. All right, so we'll pay attention to see if it goes anywhere.

If there's an injury, you know, maybe Duran could step in and make more of the opportunity, but for now it seems like, might be a part-time player moving forward. In two catcher leagues, a name that we brought up recently is Yiner Diaz. He went one for four with his sixth home run. It was his third homer in the past six games. He started seven of the past eight for the Astros.

He's getting more opportunities at D.H with Yurdon Alvarez out. And so far in the month of June, Yainer Diaz batting 333 with four homers and a 1028 OPS, 10% rostered. I don't know. Do you think that would cover all two catcher leagues? Scott, 10%, because if not, I think he probably should be rostered in all two catcher leagues. Yeah, probably.

I mean, we have seen two pretty high-profile catcher prospects, Henry Diaz, who we've talked about. You said Henry Diaz. Henry, Henry Davis, who we've talked about. And Boehler. And I would take both of them over Alvarez. And meanwhile, let's see, Boehler's at 29%. and Henry Davis is it?

Henry Davis, I think he's up to 48%. Okay, so that's, he's probably rostering all two catcher leagues at this point. So yeah, I would definitely take both of them over Diaz. Diaz, you know, eventually Ordin Alvarez is going to be back. That's probably a month away. So as a short-term play, Diaz is fine. But I don't see him taking over as the primary catcher. I just think Dusty Baker values defense too much at that position.

and really seems to like Martin Maldonado. But Diaz is a good hitter. I mean, two minor league stops. Last year he hit 306 with 25 homers and 898 OPS, makes contact at a good rate, and should be productive for as long as this lasts. So in two catcher leagues, I would say he's definitely worth rostering at this point. But again, I'd prioritize the two latest call-ups over him.

Yep, and I agree with you as well. I was thinking, is there an opportunity for Diaz to get at bats even once Alvarez returns? It probably is going to be pretty tough. I mean, maybe if Alvarez is playing in the outfield, they could play Diaz at DH, but Alvarez is going to be coming back from an oblique injury. I don't know how much they're going to want them to play in the outfield. So they're probably going to want to protect the asset there and will mean bad things for Yainer Diaz's playing time. Three names in deeper formats.

We talked about Carrie Conradt. Arpenter and Mike Talkman yesterday. Wanted to mention Michael Garcia, who went one for four with his second homer. He also had two steals over the weekend. He's batting 268 with two homers and seven steals in 39 games for the Royals. And typically you think of, all right, a middle infield type guy doesn't hit the ball that hard. 92 mile per hour average exit velocity, a 51.5% hard hit rate for Mikel Garcia. he's mildly interesting 7% rostered Scott what do you think of him

yeah mildly interesting I guess if if I'm calling if I'm calling though uh Pardomo and Brendan Donovan if I'm calling them just low end options then I mean Mikel Garcia isn't nearly on their level so we're talking about really deep leagues where you'd look into him primarily for the stolen bases I don't play in too many leagues like that. Yeah, probably would have to be a 15 teamer,

although he might already be... It's a bad choice in a 15 team or two. It may be a desperation choice, but I'm not going to get excited about picking them up. Yeah, I mean, look, I have 15 team leagues, Scott, where I would welcome Michael Garcia on my team.

I think I'm starting... I have, in my main event league, I have three Marlins in my lineup. That's like two Marlins too many. You know, I've got, Jorge Soler, he's been a godsend this season. But then I also have Garrett Cooper and Joey Wendell in the lineup. It's rough.

It's rough out here, man. Yeah, it's Michael. What place are you in? He's not available. I think we're either in third or fourth. Yeah. I know I have teams lower in the standings who don't have those issues. Yeah.

That's interesting. Fourth place. Fourth place, 104.5 is a score there. Yeah, I was going to bring this up about. how we really don't know much about pitching this year, and it's been very unpredictable. This team, I'll just quickly read off the pitchers I have. First place in ERA, first place in whip.

Keep that in mind. For Amber Valdez is the ace, obviously he's been amazing. Jesus Lazzardo, he's been up and down. Kodaisanga, also up and down. Kyle Hendrix, Michael Waka, Kyle Gibson, Bryce Miller, Julio Taran, Ranger Suarez. That's the pitching staff.

First and ERA, first and whip. I don't know. I don't think you're going to stay first. I don't think so either. That's why I need the hitting to come around. The first few pitchers you named, it's like, how are you first in whip? And then, okay, you have these kind of

out of nowhere successes who happen to have like crazy low whips, right? now, but you can't imagine that would last. Like even Bryce Miller. What's his whip? Bryce Miller's whip has got to be below like 0.9. I think it's 0.88? Yeah. Yeah, that's probably not going to last. Just like law of averages. I know he doesn't walk anybody, but still, like he's got to give up more hits at some point to bring that whip up higher, considering he doesn't miss many bats. I oversold it a little bit. Second and ERA and third in whip, but the point remains. It's a 15-team league, and, you know, that pitching staff is top three in ERA and Whip.

It just doesn't seem like it would make sense, but this is like the bizarro pitching year in fantasy baseball. So there you go. Let's hit some news and notes. Yerdon Alvarez went through some stretching pre-game Monday. It's not much, but it's the first bit of physical activity since he went down with a strained right oblique. Hunter Green was placed on the IL with right hip discomfort that he's been battling for a few weeks now. And it's unfortunate because obviously he's probably your SPR. or SP4 and gets a ton of strikeout, so not ideal.

Jazz Chisholm is expected to begin a rehab assignment this week. He's been out since mid-May with turf toe in his right foot, or on his right foot. Is turf toe on your foot or in your foot? I think it's in your foot. It's not like a fungus. Yeah. I don't know. That's a weird one.

Let us know. Tim Anderson has missed two straight with right shoulder soreness. However, reports are good, and the hope is that he will avoid the IL. But Alejandro Kirk, unfortunately, could not avoid the IL. He was placed on it with a left hand injury, which means Danny Jansen should see most of the reps at catcher moving forward. Francisco Alvarez was removed from Monday's game against the Astros after fouling a ball off his right hand, but initial x-rays came back negative, thankfully. The White Sox are hopeful. Liam Hendricks can resume a throwing program within the next week or so.

He's been given a cortisone shot and a PRP injection as he will. works his way back from right elbow inflammation. Alec Manoa is slated to throw another simulated game on Wednesday, assuming all goes well. The next time he faces hitters could be in a game setting at one of the Blue Jays minor league affiliates. Lance Lynn was placed on the bereavement list and will miss anywhere between three and seven days. So there is a chance that he doesn't make his next start, which is supposed to be this weekend against the Red Sox, but we shall see.

Kensimaita is likely to return to the twins by the end of this week, and he's posted a 2.03 ERA over four stars at AAA, and has been out since late April with a right tricep strain. If he does return, Scott, it's probably the end of Louis Varland, huh? Yep, I would think so. Yeah. Mention this earlier that Henry Davis is likely going to be playing most of his games in right field. Moving forward, Anthony Rendon was placed on the IL with a left-risk contusion,

Tanner Halk will be re-evaluated later this week before a determination is made regarding whether he'll have surgery to address a fracture on the right side of his face. Graham Ashcraft is expected to rejoin the Reds rotation this weekend against the Braves. We had a bunch of Rockies updates. Ezekiel Tovar placed on the paternity list. Brendan Rogers slated to begin hitting drills this week. He had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder back in spring training. there has been some positivity around him.

So maybe we get Brendan Rogers later on in the season. Charlie Blackman believes he could be back sooner than the initial mid to late July return date. And Chris Bryant played catch, hit, and did some late running on Sunday. He's been on the aisle since late May with a left heel bruise. Josh Rojas was optioned to AAA, and as a result, Alec Thomas was recalled by the debacks

and instantly hit a home run off of corporate. He went two for four in that game. And I was reading about him recently, Scott. Apparently, Alec Thomas, he ditched a leg kick in his batting stance. And then he just kind of took off in the minors. He was betting 3.48 with three homers, two steals in 26 games at AAA. Do you have any interest in Alex Thomas? Really hitter friendly affiliate, AAA affiliate,

as we've made reference to a few times with other players and book. But Alec Thomas was a monster down there last year, too, and it didn't translate to the majors. I would say the biggest issue is where's he going to fit? Because they have, let's see, Gurreal started at D.A. Normally, Guriel starts in left field, Carroll and center, McCarthy, and right. I guess if they're willing to abandon Pavin Smith,

then maybe that opens up a spot for Alec Thomas, who's a plus defensively. He's adding him to the center field. and putting Guriel D-H improves their outfield defense. So I guess there is a chance there he could find playing time, but it might take a while to sort that out, and obviously he'll need to perform. So it's more of a wait-and-see situation with Alec Thomas for me.

Let's take our final break, and when we return, I have a potential sell-high candidate. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back, and a big thanks to everyone watching us live. We do appreciate you being here. Make sure to hit that thumbs up, like this video, and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Sell high or don't even try, Scott.

Michael Waka, another quality start. This one at the San Francisco Giants. Six innings, two runs, two walks, zero strikeouts for Michael Waka. Only three swinging strikes on 93 pitches. Eight hard hits allowed in this one has allowed two earned runs or fewer in nine straight starts. So even with your theory, Scott, that we don't know whether fantasy players, do they look at the overall numbers or the recent numbers? Whatever numbers they look at, Michael Walker has been really good, right, over the past two months or so. What worries me here is two starts in a row now.

His velocity has been down. And he's not some kind of big flame thrower. But it kind of makes me feel like it might matter even more for somebody like him, because each of his fastball changeup curve all down 1.1 miles per hour in the start. His cutter was down 1.7 miles per hour. And again, that's two in a row. I don't know how much you can get for Michael Walker. Scott, but it's just something I wanted to throw out there into the universe where if you have him,

maybe you try and chop them for like a top 30 outfielder or something like that, just a viable hitter that you might need on your team. What are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, obviously it depends on what your pitching staff looks like. The reason why I think you might be able to get a nice return for walkout is because, I mean, you referred to it earlier, just kind of the randomness at starting pitcher this year and the unpredictability. Well, at the moment, Waka looks very predictable. He's allowed two run runs or fewer,

and usually it's much, much fewer over his past date starts. So it'd be a pretty easy sell to someone who's really struggled with pitching. But if you're that someone, then it might be hard to part with them for, you know, what's a top 30 outfield or like a Cody Bellinger just back from the IL?

or I don't know, I don't know specifically what you'd be talking about there. What about like Eloy Jimenez trying to buy and hope he stays healthy? Catch lightning in a bottle or something. You'd have to have really good pitching, I think. Okay. And not many people, like, that's the thing. Like, it's the scarce. It feels like the scarcest asset that you're shopping here.

So I feel like if you're going to sell Waka, and it doesn't seem like he can sustain this. I know he had like a 320 something ERA last year, which makes me a little hesitant to say, oh, he's just going to implode. But it doesn't seem like he can sustain this. But I think you might be able to do better than that. That's what I'd be aiming for if I shopped them. Look for the team that is the most desperate for pitching. That's still in it.

You know, that's not the last place team because they may have already tuned out by now. but the one most desperate for pitching that's still in the race and see what you can get. Make an offer that seems like just a little bit too far and see if they take it. And there will be regression.

I mean, there's, I don't think I'm breaking news here, but he's got a 2.90 ERA after this start. And Michael Waka has a 378 FIP, a 457X FIP, so he has had some home run luck this season, BABIP is a little bit low, strain rate is high, so I think some of those things will normalize as a season continues on here. And again, don't just sell for the sake of it, but if you could turn Michael Walker into a good asset,

something I would look into doing. What is going on with these hitters this season? We'll start off with two New York Mets. Francisco Lindorre went two for five with his 14th home run. The problem is that he's batting 216. The counting stats are there, Scott. Seven steals, maybe a little bit underwhelming for Francisco Lindor.

You know, the power has been okay. Yeah, 2-16 batting average is a killer. The other one here is Starling Marte, who I know you had as a bus coming into the season, and the batting average has been all right. It's been middling. It's giving you a lot of steals. But he's the opposite of Lindora.

His counting stats are terrible. I think he's only got three home runs on the season, too. So, yeah, it's been a disappointing go here for Marte and Lindor's batting average. What's going on? Do you think it gets better for these two? Had Lindor as a bust last year, I think. Maybe it was a year early on that. No, I mean, I think I think Lindor's probably going to come out of it.

Let's see. Looking at the underlying numbers here. No, they're not, like they expected stats aren't so far off from, last year. The expected slugs actually better. The batting average about 16 points low,

but the exit velocity seemed fine. He's striking out a little more but not so much more that you think there's been a real diminishment, real reduction in skill here.

That would be a great target with Waka if you want to try that. Lindor, especially like if you include your scrubby shortstop with them, or if the guy who has Lendor is already kind of,

you know, staked out or replaced. With trades, you got to take into account the other team's context as much as anything, I think, and that's why it's hard to pull trade offers out of the blue. But, yeah, I would say that Lindor, I expect to be better and probably much better than he's been so far. Marte Lesso, as he pointed out, I had him as a preseason bust, and I just think he's at an age where decline makes sense. he is much slower now. So, like, just in terms of how fast he runs,

we can see that he's lost something physically. And it's very likely he gets hurt at some point in the near future because he always does. Stalling Marte has almost as many steals as he does RBI. It's just, it seems weird for a player of his caliber. You know, it's 20 RBI, 19 steals on the season. So. Mm-hmm.

Because he does have that steals, and I mentioned how he's gotten slower. I'm looking at his percentile rank for sprint speed. It's 47th percentile. Last year, it was 68th every year before. Then it was 83rd or higher. So, like, his speed is in precipitous decline here. It has an impact at his ability to steal bases, which is great. But, like, he doesn't run nearly as fast anymore.

He's slower than the average player now. Yeah. I have to imagine the power gets a little bit better. His home run to fly ball rate is 5% the season for Marte. And he's actually hitting the ball harder this year than he did last year. So he's not someone that typically hits for a lot of power. And I wouldn't expect that. But maybe he can get to, I don't know, double-digit home runs by the end of the season or something.

It's just three seems really good for him. That's fair. I just, I don't know that the return is going to be enough to justify the weight. Like, I don't see Starling Marte. Starling Marte is probably going to be better than he's been, at least for however long he's healthy. But I don't know that he's going to be so good that it's like a priority on the trade market to go out and get him. Okay. Some leftovers. We'll start with the pitchers here. Studley performances from Max Scherzer, who pitched eight innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and 15 swinging strikes at the Astros.

James Paxson makes it three straight quality starts, 16 plus swinging strikes. in each of his past four outings. He just looks like Stud James Paxton once again. Please, please stay healthy. Like for as long as possible. And Merrill Kelly, a great start at the Brewers. Seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts with 13 swinging strikes and just quietly having a career season

for Merrill Kelly. Anything to add on those three, Scott? Kelly, Paxson, and Scherzer. No, not really. I noticed Scherzer threw a lot more sliders than this one. his previous two starts were pretty awful, combined 11 runs on 18 hits and two short starts. But bounce back nicely.

34% sliders, normally it's 18%. Hasn't been the most effective pitch for him this year, but he's tinkering. I think he's going to figure it out, and particularly in this pitching market, going to be a pretty good asset for you still, even with the ups and downs. But yeah, Merrill Kelly's been very consistent.

And who's the other one? James Paxton. Paxton? Oh, yeah. Big Maple, baby. Yeah, I mean, I've been on the Paxton bandwagon, basically, since his first start back. And it hasn't, the ride hasn't slowed down yet. I think we're just going to take it all the way. The only thing I noticed with Paxton that I wanted to mention was that his fastball

velocity was down 0.8 miles per hour. So let's see where it goes from here. But for the most part, that fastball velocity has remained all season long. I mean, there's probably a justification to sell high with him, too, just given the injury history, and particularly at his age, the likelihood of something coming up. I'm not nearly as motivated to do that as with Waka. But, you know, if you're stacked with pitching and you can find someone who isn't,

then maybe you could really get a huge return for Paxton. It's something to think about. But for the most part, I'm just going to ride this out. One okay performance I wanted to mention, Andrew Heaney at the White Sox, five and two thirds, two runs aloud, six strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes. We haven't talked about Heaney in a while, Scott. There hasn't really been much reason to. I mean, he's kind of middling over a strikeout per inning is impressive,

but the ERA and the whip haven't been great. You know, the walks and home runs are an issue for him as well. So I think he's more of a streamer at this point than anything. We're talking about Haney? Yep. Yeah, he's gotten crushed in June. His average exit velocity for these four starts in June is like 94. Ugh.

And it's led to, I mean, obviously the results in this start were fine to start that 96 average exit velocity in this start. but in those four June starts he has a 46070 or a 173 whip he appears to be a pitcher on the decline not one we should rely on for much longer if at all okay what do we make of these two pitchers Reese Olson kind of turned in a quality start six innings four runs only three were earned so I think technically it was a quality start but is he on the streaming pitchers list for Monday I could go back and look.

I'm not sure. I don't... I feel like he should have been. Probably should have been. You know, those weekend recaps, they get a little crazy, Scott. I hear. 15 swinging strikes.

Look, it's pretty impressive. Like, there was one star where Reese Olson got crushed. But I think the other three have been pretty interesting for him. And the other name is Osvaldo Bito with the Pirates. Turned in his first quality start of his career, six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes. Anything with these two, Scott. Reese Olson, Osvaldo Bido.

I like Olson a lot more than Vito. Vito, or sorry, Bido. I thought you were making... I thought you were making a Sopranos reference, Scott. Hey! By the way, so the Pirates rotation right now has an Osvaldo, an Oviedo, and an Ortiz. Like back to back to back,

three pitchers whose first or last name starts with O. I was wondering how common that is. The Braves lineup has Olson, Ozzie, and Orlando.

But that's the lineup, not the pitching staff. I don't know. There's a lot of O names going around. Yeah. That's neither here nor there, but it's something I noticed.

Anyway, Reese Olson. Yeah, I like what I've seen from him. A lot of swinging strikes, really good secondary stuff. He's got that slider with the 3,000 RPM, and yet the change-up is actually his best swing and miss pitch. He threw it more in this start against the Royals.

And got a lot of swinging strikes. Did allow a lot of hard contact. And that's probably why he allowed four runs, three earned, two home runs. But there's some interesting things going on there to wouldn't surprise me if he emerges as an asset down the stretch. Okay. I'm looking at yesterday's rundown, Scott. Reese Olson was on the list.

And now that I'm thinking about it, we did recommend him and Josiah Gray. So, no, okay. I must have just shows through that, as I usually do. Not really the greatest recommendations, I guess you could say here on Monday. Some hitting leftovers. Jordan Walker went two for four. Now has a 12 game hitting streak. Looks completely locked in.

Love to see it. Tommy Edmund with a bounce back game, two for two with two walks, a triple and three runs scored. I noticed that I was playing you in the podcast listeners league. I had Tommy Edmund on the bench. So I didn't really feel great about that. Good job, Frank. Bobby Wood Jr. went two for three. Are we first and second in that league?

I think your first place for sure. And if I don't know, if I'm not second, I think I have the second most point scored. It's close. That's what it was. Yeah, so there is a team that's seven and four. I'm tied for third at six and five. And, yeah.

I'm still second in points. You have a pretty hefty lead. 3,419 points for you. 3,210 for me. So, yeah. I just wanted to talk about how I'm in first place in the podcast listeners league.

There you go. Eight and three, getting it done. I'm looking at our matchup now. You had Paxson go. I had Merrill Kelly and Max Scherzer. This is going to be a juggernaut of a week. Two pretty good teams there. Bobby Wood Jr., two for three with a sock

and to shoe, his 12th homer, and his 22nd steel. Batting average has been lackluster, but Bobby Witt is still on pace for like a 25, 45, 45 pace, which is very good for fantasy. Jorge Soler went 1 for 4 with his 21st home run, batting 260 with a 923 OPS. Alias Diaz went 2 for 5 with a mammoth home run, his eighth of the season, 428 feet. Luis Robert went 2 for 3 with his 18th homer, Josh Young. went three for five with his 15th homer, five hard hits in that game.

And I wanted to bring up the strikeout rate, Scott, because I know you and I recently got into it about the strikeout rate. It is down to 25% on the season because it's only 14% in June. Josh Young has like taken off this month. Well, that was the caveat I allowed. If the strikeout rate,

if you can get it well below the 30% mark and 25% would be a completely different class of, strikeout rate than I think what he's doing is more believable. His expected batting average with that strikeout rate now dropping to 25% for the year is 272. It's pretty good for an expected batting average.

Obviously he's batting, his actual batting average is what? Like 290? I don't have it pulled up right now. So he may not be able to sustain 290. Yeah. But, you know, I have a lot more hope for him hitting better than 250 than I did.

a couple weeks ago when we got into it. A couple others here. Corbyn Carroll went one for four with his 16th home run. And I mean, you want to hear the June numbers? 3.43 batting average. Seven homers, three steals, a 1219 OPS. Someone told me that Corbyn Carroll now has the highest OPS in the National League, which sounds crazy and believable.

He's been awesome. Juan Soto went 2 for 4 with a double dong. Both homers to the opposite field. now up to 13 home runs for him. Call to the bullpen, a few updates here. Jordan Hicks has a save three days in a row with Giovanni Gaiagos working in the eighth inning in back-to-back games.

Hicks averaged 101.9 miles per hour on his sinker. He hit a max of 104 on the pitch, and he's only 22% rostered. We'll see what happens with Ryan Helsley. I can't say this for sure, Scott. But I'm getting a sense here. have a feeling, intuition that Jordan Hicks is going to take this job and run with it for the rest of the season. That's the feeling I'm getting. We've seen him do it before. I mean, it's,

it's not like Ryan Helsley was consistently getting saved chances. They seem to like him for higher leverage situations earlier in the game. And that's why Gallego's save total was about even at the time Helsley went down. And we still don't really know what Helsley's, Helsley's prognosis is it sounds like a short-term injury, but they've been doing a lot of testing and whatnot. So yeah, I guess it's possible. And maybe he'll step up in that role, you know. He throws very hard. He's always thrown very hard.

He's had success in the role in the past, followed by injuries. And his ERA and WIP this year are not very good. But he's gotten the job done three days in a row. So they wouldn't be crazy. Somebody asked me on Twitter earlier today. Jordan Hicks or Adbert Alzali rest of season. And I said Alzali because, you know, I'm still thinking in terms of Helsley coming back

and Hicks going back to his old role when that happens. But I would say between the two, Hicks has more upside because of the scenario that you laid out. Yeah, I think if you want to shoot for the stars there, it would be Jordan Hicks. You know, the Cubs have kind of mixed and match. I know Alzali has gotten the past couple of saves, but yeah, look, the Cardinals should be the better team, too.

They clearly haven't been, but that's a pretty close question. For the Tigers, some idiot on the podcast yesterday said that Jason Foley should get the next save for the Tigers. I don't know who that was. But Alex Lang got the ninth inning in this game, retired all three batters he faced for his 11th save. I should have factored in Jason Foley through 27 or 28 pitches yesterday, so probably was not going to work today regardless. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz gave up two hits with a one-run lead, but he buckled down for his 19th save.

For the Rangers, Will Smith allowed two base runners but picked up his 13th save. And for the Padres, Josh Hader was unavailable, and everybody else was a mess. That's all you need to know, that the Padres wound up losing the game. To stream or not to stream, Scotty, on Tuesday. Who do we say yesterday?

Uh, I think it was, what Ben lively versus the Rockies in Cincinnati? You and Chris liked that a little more than I did it but it's okay. I think you said Oviato versus the Cubs. Yeah. Yeah, I'd prefer him to lively, I think.

I think Savali versus the A's is okay. I'm not opposed to rolling the dice on Ranger Suarez against the Braves. I did have him as the top sleeper pitcher for this week. Mostly because he had the two starts when you're thinking in terms of weekly rather than daily. He's looked good lately.

He really has. I just, I can't do it. The Braves against lefties, they have a 903 OPS as a team. The next closest is at 840. That's crazy. They are so good against lefties.

That's a good point. I had Ranger Suarez as a two-star option in my main event league. I benched him. I didn't even start him. I was like, I'm going to protect the ratios. I'm not doing it.

Like, It's scary. So maybe it gets the Mets later in the week, but I don't know, man. Against the Braves, it's pretty scary. Okay. You talk me out of it. On Wednesday,

Julio Taran, it's a similar thing. Like, he's pitched really well, but the Diamondbacks are on fire right now. I just, I don't think that I could go there. A.J.

Smith-Shavre at the Phillies, I think is all right. Pretty interesting. Garrett Whitlock at the Twins is really good. Yeah. Yeah, I would, I had Whitlock and Smith-Shallver

on the sleeper pitchers for this week as well, even though they were just one-start options. I had Whitlock ahead of Ms. Schaver, and so I'll stick with that here. And then I would agree that Tehran's the third choice. No, he's not. Hendricks is the third choice at Pittsburgh. I was going to say Hendricks at Pittsburgh, and I think Blackburn at the Guardians is fine, but he would be fourth on the list if, I guess, if those other three are gone.

The Diamondbacks might end Tehran's run of success, so I'd, Yeah. I'd rather steer clear of that one. By the way, Carol is leading, at least he entered the day, Monday, leading the NL in OPS, ahead of Ronald O'Kunia, ahead of Freddie Freeman. Crazy, crazy stuff. You know who's fourth behind those three? Carol O'Kuhnian Freeman, NL OPS, and he's only added to it here on Monday. Fourth, an OPS in the NL.

Luis a Rise. Wow. In OPS. Man, it's John Murphy 5th, Jorge. Salare six, so the Marlins have two of the top six. That's crazy. Good for them. I think they're like 11 games over 500 now. Again, it's fun. I like seeing these teams that didn't have many expectations

turn their, I guess, seasons around or have good seasons in general. Let's wrap up with team name Tuesday. These are from Bob. Weemers Wobah. Or I think it's supposed to be Weemers Waba, but they don't fall down. It's some old commercial. Do you know what's got? Weebel's wobble? I'm familiar. I'm not familiar with the commercial,

but I'm familiar with it being referenced in pop culture. Okay. Acuna Moncada. I'm not that old. That's a classic there. Acuna Moncada, yeah. Yeah.

From Terry, No Moa Tears. It's like the song No More Tears by Ozzy Osbourne. He also had a great poster with Alec Mnora's face on Ozzy Osbourne's body. That's pretty good. From Casey, in honor of Scott freaking out about Colton Couser and Aaron Hicks.

Move, Hicks, get out the way. Is it move or is it whoa? I always thought it was whoa. No, it's definitely move. Okay. And it's not Hicks. But I think you knew that. From Matt, Logan's runs aloud.

Okay. Haim Maintenance. Hime maintenance? I think this is something to do with cars. Heim joint maintenance when I looked it up. I can't tell you. I just got a car. My first car last year, I can't really tell you much about cars.

Pour some Seeger on me. Sure. Geo sells Urchellas by the seashore. All right. That's pretty good. And this is, I guess, some kind of coincidence, but Matt also had the same one. Move Higgs get out the way

specifically for you, Scott. So there you go. Okay. From Felix, eggs over Izzy Alcantara. A lot going on there. What's the Alcantara part? I don't know.

I just eat scrambled eggs because I'm boring. Yeah, I like scrambled too. Yeah, let's go, Scott. From Michael. Could have been Bader. Is that like, could have been better? I think that's it, yeah.

Okay. From Russ, I'll be's there for you. Oof. Yep. No, that's fine. I just, your rendition was. All right, Scott, well, you could sing.

No. You want to sing the next one? From Mike. It's a little hard because they're harmonizing so much. You know, it's hard to, like, kind of pick out the melody from those. Yeah. So I sympathize. Somebody's got to do it.

Don't go chafin'n' wall. Waterfalls. Uh-huh. From the machine at the Copa, Copac Cabana. That works. It's pretty good. From Ben, who I believe he said he's been a fan since 2009. I was back in high school, so long-time fan.

Once upon a midnight drury. Hmm. I like that. That works. From David, Wachamo. Uh, sure. And Darth Bader. All right, yep.

From Neil. Iquan from a land down younger. That's good. You had to sing it for me to get it. That's good. Galloway Guriel. Ed Sheeran, I don't know. I don't know anything about it.

Okay. Probably need Chris here for that one. This is good. Because I'm just in teenage dirtbag. by B. Okay. When Weamer Young. That's a good song too.

Young with the J. Yeah. Yeah. Why want we be Fred's? Why is you sticking Fred in there? I don't know. How many friends do we have in baseball nowadays? I don't know. Maybe he has Freddie Freeman. I don't know. Yeah. Chevro.

Cruz Silvaronado All right Nestor B sounds like that that seems like a teeth teeth that seems like a

Heath team name construct yeah Chevrolet Camerero Cruz Silvaronado there's a lot going on there Nestor B. Pearson

don't get that one I didn't know what it was and I tried to I tried to research some of these require so much research and it takes a lot of my time actually

Last one here. Why bay the cowser when you forget the milk for Freeman? Okay. That's a funny use of the expression, even if it's cramming way too many names into it. All right. Well, there you go. We went way too long, but we had to do it for the team names. For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again. tomorrow. Bye-bye.