Fantasy Baseball Today - Kyle Harrison Disaster, Alex Bregman Triple Dong & More Prospect Promotions! (9/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

The Padres are promoting Ethan Salas (2:30)! ... The Nationals are promoting Yohandy Morales (9:25)! ... Kyle Harrison just had a disaster (14:05). ... Alex Bregman has turned into Barry Bonds (20:25). ... Daylen Lile is on fire (25:05). ... News (30:00): Aaron Judge could be back next week. ... Let's fire up the DROP-O-METER (42:10)! ... Walker Jenkins is on the board (53:37). ... Walbert Ureña dominated the Yankees (59:11). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:03:11).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, September 1st. Here we are. Frank Stample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we will fire up the drop. for four starting pitchers. One of whom is Kyle Harrison. What's going on with that guy? Alex Breggman has turned into Barry Bonds and much more. But first, more prospects are on the way. It is September 1st, so we do have rosters expanding

to 28, 28, right? That's the number. So the two names that we have so far, I guess there could be more announced on Tuesday. But the Padres are promoting their top catcher prospect, Ethan Salas, who, is just 20 years old. He has had an up and down minor league career,

but he has been mashing since moving up to AAA. He's only played 24 games there, but hitting 326 with three homers, 24 RBI, three steals, and a 949 OPS. Scott, for those who play in Dynasty, we have heard Ethan Salas' name for a long time now. 15% rostered, your thoughts on him the player?

Will he play enough? Because they also have two other interesting, decent, That's on the roster. I mean, is Freddie for me and that decent or interesting? I feel like he's good defensively. He's been really good in the second half of the season. Both him and Luis Campasana have actually been great.

Camposano's been hitting well, but he brings no defensive value, so they can't play him all that regularly. I think Ethan Salas solves the problem of, okay, we get a good defender behind the plate, but he can actually hit. At least hopefully he can actually hit, because as you alluded to, Frank,

it has been a ride getting Salas here. He emerged as a consensus top 10 overall prospect heading into the 2024 season because year before, 2023, he had reached AA as a 17-year-old. And that seemed to be the biggest justification. Well, I mean, a catcher gets to AA at 17. He must be amazing.

His stock fell after that. And coming into this year, he wasn't even widely on top 100 lists because he struggled to hit in the upper minors and had some injuries along the way. You only played 10 games in 2025. That stalled his development. And yet here he is at age 20 as a catcher reaching the majors because his offense exploded this year in the minors. In really all the ways you would want it to, I don't look at Salas and want for much. His zone contact rate at AAA,

especially impressive, 95%. So when he chooses to swing at a pitch in the zone, he hits it. He doesn't chase a ton. The plate discipline's been really good. The exit velocities have been, I would say decent, no more than decent, but considering he's 20,

that's still a solid achievement. Could stand to put the ball in the air more. But overall, he ended up hitting between AA and AAA 296, 10 home runs, 17 steals. So adds a little bit of speed potentially in 96 games, OPS of 822. And those numbers got better once he moved up to AAA, hitter-friendly league. But still, there is a gap between AA and AAA in terms of the level of competition. And obviously, Ethan Salas navigated that gap fine. So he's coming up.

I don't think he's going to remove Luis Campusano from starting consideration as well as he's hit. But I'm guessing Salas will play 60% at the time, at least until he proves he doesn't deserve that much, which at age 20 is possible. But, you know, two catcher leagues. I think everyone should be interested in Ethan Salas. and the upside is enough that, yeah, if I didn't already have a second great catcher, I'd be making a move for him. I love AJ Preller. I just love how aggressive. Like, I'm not even sure.

I think there are people who would argue he's a bad GM, and I think that's clearly ridiculous. Like, his team is in the playoff hunt every single year. That's not an accident. But I love how aggressive he is. He is, man. And like, if he's got a window, he's going to force his way through it. And it might not always be the smartest long-term play. I think U. Darvish has about six years left on his contract.

But they are aggressive and they will call guys up when they think they're ready to make an impact. So, you know, it's largely worked. Jackson Merrill was awesome as a 20-year-old. Fernando Tatis was awesome as a 19-year-old, I think. I'm excited to see Ethan Salas. I think any, if you, if you've been looking for upside through your number two catcher spot, I think it's perfectly fine to pick them up. I was really hoping that Darvish contract that you mentioned was just hyperbole.

But he legitimately does have two more years after this year. He doesn't have six, but. It was a little bit of hyperbole. But the fact that he has two more at ages 40 and 41 is pretty damning, I would say. I think Xander Bogartz has at least six. Well, Mani Machado has like eight. I think, I think, yeah. I think Bogart's actually.

has like closer to 10, which is extremely scary. But Ethan Talas, again, he's only 20 years old. The defense has been, you know, lauded for years. Apparently, people were saying, like, he can call a game and catch a major league game when he was, like, 18 years old. And so there's no worry about that. It's just, all right, how is he going to hit in the majors? Just trying to figure out where I'm going to drop him into the rankings.

Looking at our consensus catcher rankings, we have from 17 through 23, it's Carter Jensen, Kaber Ruiz, Jainer Diaz, Tyler Stevenson, Moises, Biasteroz, Rio Muto, and Raphael Flores. How many of those? What do you think Ethan Salas would drop into that mix? Behind Tyler Stevenson, I think, because he's been really good in the second half. Well, for a while, yeah. But I think it's fine to take him ahead of the rest of those guys. It's tough with Flores because he's been hitting well for a while, too.

Yeah. Lots of striking. He's got some lots of power too. I think I'd have to put him behind Flores personally. That's fine. Which I know it's always a funny thing to be like, oh, yeah, this prospect, he's got all this upside. Look at all these great things he was doing in the minors and then be like, he's my 23rd ranked catcher. But, you know, there's the willingness to play the lottery, and then there's the rational response

to playing the lottery, you know? And when it comes to ranking, I'm going to do the latter. When it comes to discussing, I'm probably going to do the former. So I mostly agree. I think I would take Jensen, Stevenson, and Flores ahead, but then I'm probably going to slot Ethan Salas right at number 20, which would be ahead of Rio Muto, Cabo Ruiz, Jainer Diaz, and Moises Bayisteros.

If you're playing a two-catcher league, that is the mix that Ethan Salas is in. The second prospect that we're getting, the nationals are calling up infield prospect. Johandi Morales, he is 24 years old, and he has been mashing this year. 104 games at AAA, 286 with 25 homers, an 881 OPS, 91. 91.5 average EV 13% barrel rate. Some of the underlying plate discipline stuff, very worrisome here for Morales. Chris, I'm not sure that Morales is a legitimate, like, top, top end prospect,

But if nothing else, he looks like he might be a hitter, like a solid right-handed stick. Yeah, you can make a case for him as like a better in fantasy than real-life prospect because he's, he plays first and third base. I think in the long term, he's viewed as more of a first baseman. And it's a right-handed, likely long-term first baseman. The bar for being a viable major leaguer in the long term with that profile is really high. He doesn't provide much defensive value, very little on the base paths. So he's going to have to hit, and that's why you're not going to see him, like, as a top 10 prospect, the national system. But the minor league production is very good this season.

It's a 126 WRC plus. He's bounced back from a down season last year. He's hitting the ball hard. I'm just not sure how much he's going to play is the thing, because they're already running out a platoon at first base. they could just decide they're done with Brady House, who has shown very little at the major league level. But if they don't do that, maybe he's the DH,

but I don't know if Johanio Morales will play every day for them. So that's the biggest concern here. But he's a moderately interesting bat. Yeah, I don't know. Like now seems like an odd time to give up on Brady House. he has an 800 OPS over the past 17 games or at least he came into today like that.

For the year he has a 700 OPS. I mean, I don't think that's low enough to give up on a player. I mean, some 700 OPS guys have long careers. So I hear you on that with Johan Di Morales, who if you listen, we did talk about him a few times this year on the fantasy baseball today expressed the prospect-focused one that comes out weekly because he was

surging at times mid-seasoned. The exit velocities are very strong. I agree with the take that the playing time is going to be hard to find here because Brady House is back in the majors and doing okay and because... James would have likely me back this week. Well, sure. And Abamelik Ortiz ended up being able to be able to be. leading Johandi Morales to the majors. I think it's going to be sparse playing time. But he hits the ball very hard, and there's always a chance with guys

who hit the ball that hard. I think... So Lazaro Montes, when he came up yesterday, some people were evoking the name as Merlin Valdez, I think, because as Merlin Valdez, obviously had a run of success this year and made himself more of a name because of that. But I would say Johan Di Morales,

in terms of the kind of prospect as Merlin Valdez was very similar, right-handed cornermen who hit the ball very hard, but miss it too much. And it seems like as Merlin Valdez, well, he obviously did fade.

We don't know why he faded, but it probably had something to do with that. I think Morales has a similar boomer bust profile with the expectation being it's probably going to bust. Yeah. Johani Morales, 6% roster.

on CBS. I think it's only an NL only name for now. And yeah, it is kind of just tough to see where the playing time comes. There's Abamelik Ortiz at first base. There's Brady House at third. At DH, it's been a combo of like Yor beat Vivas and Andres Chapparo. But Chris, you mentioned James Wood, who's going to be back. And they also still have Dylan Lyle and Dylan Cruz and Jacob Young in the outfield. Not that Young is like, whatever. He's not anything special. Very good defensively. He's good defensively and he's been like okay offensively in the second half of the season. So I think James Wood's probably going to get some DH time as well. So yeah, just probably a wait and see there with Johandi Morales.

Let's get into the players of the night from Monday's action. Oh, my goodness. Goodness gracious. Oh, my goodness. Scott, what just happened to Kyle Harrison? Well, what happened to Kyle Harrison was he pitched on the road. I think that's the main thing to distinguish here. because I don't know why we haven't drawn as much attention to this

as maybe we should have. It's just not something I thought to check myself, but for as much as we've made of Brian Wu's home-and-away splits, Kyle Harrison's are even more extreme. So here at Chicago, worth noting, Cubs offense has been on fire, that venue seems to be playing really well right now for hitters, although the stats on the wind weren't.

It wasn't blowing out that hard, but still worth pointing out. Wrigley Field's been hitter's paradise if late. Harrison got bombed, nine earn runs on 10 hits and three and two-thirds innings. Five home runs surrendered. Were all the three of Alex Bregman's off Harrison? I don't know if all three were. So like the hottest hitter in the second half was one of the hitters he was facing. But anyway.

Two of them were off. Two of the three. Two of the three. One of them was off Andrew Vaughn, I think. Okay. So at home this year, Kyle Harrison has a 126 ERA, a 0.86 whip, 12.3 K per 9. Only four home runs allowed. Like, he's the best picture you've ever seen at home.

On the road, 594 ERA 158 whip, 9.4 K per 9. So even the K per 9 is three fewer for all the extra batters he's facing. And 15 home runs allowed, again compared to four at home. that is stark and stark enough that I mean as the season draws to a close here I think we got to be choosy about when we use Kyle Harrison since returning from the aisle

three of his starts have been amazing two of them have been dreadful and so the dreadful starts overshadowed the amazing ones and his numbers look pretty awful if you can avoid the dreadful ones begin 126 ERA at home I don't know how literally to take that, but

American Family Field is a strange venue. Yeah. When it first opened and for, I don't know, decade and a half after that, it was regarded as like one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball.

But it's, as we've learned to measure these things, or maybe it's even played differently, it's become less so. And in particular, a lot more strikeouts happen there. And I think it's just because it casts these unusual shadows

with that retractable roof it has. And for whatever reason, like, it works really well for Harrison. I don't know, I don't know if that explains so much why he's so bad on the road, but, like, I do kind of buy in his case that,

okay, this may be a really good place for him to pitch. Yeah, I think part of it is probably he just has, a pretty unusual profile. And from what I understand, indoor venues do help pitchers with their IVB. And he gets about a half inch more IVB at home than on the road. So there's not nothing there. But yeah, if you're talking about like weird sight lines or weird shadows, however you want to phrase it, you know, that does seem like something that might

specifically help a guy like Kyle Harrison who's just, kind of weird. Like he's got ify IVB on his foreseamer, but he gets a huge amount of horizontal break to the arm's side with it. And so that could be, and like Scott said, it's a slight

positive park for home runs now over the past three seasons. It has the second highest strikeout park factor of any park in baseball. So, you would expect every pitcher to be better at American family ballpark or field or whatever it's

called. But yeah, that's a little extreme. And in fairness, it's really like two or three bad starts. One of them was three-owned runs and four and two-thirds innings. The other were eight and nine runs. So, you know,

those numbers, he's mostly been pretty good at home, is what I'm trying to say as well, or on the road. I will point out that he also just has not looked exactly right since coming back from that forearm injury that he was dealing with. So in the five starts since coming back, his fastball velocity, he's averaging 93.7 miles per hour.

Before he went on the IL, it was 95 miles per hour. So for someone who relies on their fastball as much as Kyle Harrison does, the velocity has been down on that pitch. And then there was another start, one of the five since coming back on the road, where he got the scoring line was changed from eight earned runs down to three earned runs. He still gave up eight runs, but only three of them were earned. And obviously that could have made his overall line since returning

look a lot worse as well. So he's had some really big blow-up starts here recently since coming back. And he is still 96% rostered. He is 85% started. I do have a drop-o meter set up. So let's just do it. Where is Kyle Harrison

on the drop-off? Okay. Yeah, that was... Like I said, three awesome starts since returning and then two dreadful ones. I also just this is not always the most helpful way of thinking about it, but I'm not going to let someone else throw Kyle Harrison against me and get 10 strikeouts in a pivotal matchup, you know?

I mean, it's really just one of the matchups. So if you're locked in this week, he has another road start later this week at Cincinnati, where a lot of home runs are hit. Next week, it's at home against Cincinnati, so that would be a good one. The week after that, the Brewers, I don't know his matchup yet,

but they're on the road the entire week. So two of his next three matchups are on the road. So do with that what you will with Kyle Harrison. But yeah, I'm pretty sure you just play the matchups with him depending on where he is pitching that week. All right, Chris, over to, I guess we'll just stick with this game for a second. And I will mention my player of the night. Alex Bregman, he has turned into Barry Bonds.

Yes, four, four, no, three for six with a triple dong, four RBI, and 41 games in the second half, two 96, 14 homers, 35 runs, 36 RBI, a 9.5. 80 OPS. He is second in Homer, second and runs, third in RBI in the second half. PCA, the only name ahead of him in those categories. So it does help out all this Cubs production. But, you know, we did this a couple of weeks ago, like a buyer sell.

Like, oh, man, are we buying what Bregman's doing? I don't know. He might just be awesome. Maybe not this awesome, but he might just be really, really good for the rest of the season. So I do think this is raising some questions about how we're going to view him for 2027. and it's September. I think a lot of the discussions are going to be geared toward that line of thinking anyway, moving forward. But, you know, I think he's up to like fifth or sixth among third baseman in fantasy rankings this season.

I don't think you should look at this and say, ah, Michael, Alex Bragman was great in the second half, so he's going to be great next season. I don't think, like, that's not, he's not a 980 OPS guy. And I hope I don't have to say that. I don't think anybody's going to look at Alex Bregman next season and say, look what he did in the second half. He has gotten his overall numbers to a very, very respectable place. He kind of just looks like the normal Alex Bregman. And it's funny because it's just kind of the opposite of last season when he was incredible in the first half last season and then really bad in the second half this season. This year, really bad in the first half.

He's been incredible so far in the second. September is going to play a big role in how he. We view him for 2027, but I think on the whole he has moved back from fringe starter at third baseman, which that's damning with faint praise at this point, to pretty good starter at third base. He's going to end up with 25 plus homers and 90 plus runs and probably 90 plus RBI. And basically, that's what you drafted Alex Bregman for. You know, maybe there's a, you got to account for some downside next season because he is. in his 30s and there's always risk there.

But I think the second half has mostly just gotten Alex Bregman back to where he's supposed to be. And I don't, I don't want to read too much into it beyond that. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, look, tale of two seasons, but the numbers, again, are pretty close to what we usually expect from Bregman. I think each of us, I know Scott was down on Bregman. I expected him to be worse this year as well. but yeah obviously has already surpassed what I thought he was going to do and 26 homers are the most that he has hit

in the past two, four, six, seven years. So he's probably going to pass that. He's probably going to be his most home runs hit since 2019. He's not going to sniff 41 anymore, but you know, he might get close to 30 the way that he's hitting right now. 2019 was the juiciest of the juice ball era. Yeah. And he had 40.

A lot of players have, their career high in home runs in 2019, just like a lot of players had their career high in home runs in 1987. I wonder what was going on then. It was a long time ago. I wonder what was going on in the 90s. Well, we kind of know what was going on in the 90s. I think it was a lot of juiced ball. There was a lot of juicing in general.

Yeah, we've had that conversation before where I kind of, given how small the differences in, and like things like seam height and core buoyancy. Like such tiny insignificant differences can make a big difference in how the ball carries. I think a lot of the ups and downs over the history of baseball are probably related to that. But we don't need to get into that conversation again. It's a sort of conversation that makes people pop blood vessels for some reason. I think it's interesting, but whatever. I will highlight one other player in this.

Cubs game because they hit nine home runs as a team. They put up 17 runs. Nico Horner has looked a lot like himself in the second half. He is now hitting 333 with four homers, 24 RBI, eight steals of 799 OPS here in the second half. First half, 233 with a 631 OPS. But he was underperforming expected stats and things. So I just think Nico Horner is back on track as well. So shout out to both him and Alex Bregman. Chris, a quick thought here on your player of the night. Dahl and Lyle, who has also had a huge second half. It's not quite as huge as OPS is around 900.

He has matched his first half Homer total after going deep twice. On Monday, he's got 10 now in the second half. You have 10 in the first half. That's how that works. And he's mostly kind of like Alex Bregman, at least playing his way into what I thought he was going to be. And it looks like we're going to get a 25. Homer, 15 steel, I get 90 runs in RBI, each out of Dalyle with a 265-ish batting average.

It's a pretty good player. It's not a superstar, but it's most Brian Reynolds seasons is what we're going to get out of Dail and Lyle. It's a pretty good player, a borderline top 100 pick. And I think people would be surprised that he's going to end up ranking that high this season based on how slow he was early on and we'll see how September goes. But yeah, this is Dale and Lyle mostly playing his way into what I expected from him. I did not think that he would hit for this much power. And obviously again, like a big second half has helped bring those numbers

back up here for Lyle, who's now up to 20 home runs. He has 13 steals on the season as well. But I also wonder if the nationals are just kind of helping him tap into more of that power. The way they have with other players this season, because in the second half, I wrote down over his last 31 games, but during that stretch, he has a 91 mile per hour average EV, a 12% barrel rate, and he is hitting a lot more fly balls.

So he's just doing the things that we want to see to get more power out of him. And I just wonder, like the nationals have done that with their other players too. Yeah, no, that they seem to have taken a step forward organizationally in a lot of ways,

maybe not so much on the pitching side. But certainly with their hitters. I mean, you're getting... I mean, Kate Cavali. Sure, that's the one. Don't really ask. Dr. Griffin, kind of. Don't ask about the bullpen.

No, that's bad. I believe they're two blown save short of the MLB record is what I saw. Got a whole month left too. But on the hitting side, they've had, you know, finally CJ Abrams sustaining the breakout for a full season. And James Wood sanded down a lot of the rough edges. And yeah, it's, Dalyland Lau was below 88 miles per hour and average XEVlocity each of the first three months of the season. he's been above 90.5 in both July and August. So it might just be a hot stretch,

but I think he's a player. I think he's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, if someone can contact that National's front office and get their hands on Dylan Cruz, that would be pretty nice if we can figure that out now. Oh, man, before we hit our first break, make sure to hit the like button

and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Big thank you to everyone for being here. We do appreciate it again. Hit that like button. Let's take a break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy. baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes and it appears we are getting closer. Aaron Boone said that Aaron Judge could return during the Yankees next homestand, which runs from September 8th through September 13th. So that would be next Tuesday through that weekend. And that's a lot of what we've heard. There was a report from Joel Sherman that throughout like September 10th as a possibility. So it appears we are getting closer here with Aaron Judge. Good news there. James Wood needs one more rehab game that he will play on. on Tuesday, and if that goes well, it sounds like he could be back in the Nationals lineup as

soon as Wednesday. So I had a lot of people asking whether or not to play him still this week, and in most cases, I would have opted to, yes, leave or put James Wood back in your lineups this week. We do finally have some clarity here on the Chase Burns situation. He will not pitch at all this week with his next start coming next Monday, September 7th against the Dodgers, and additionally, each of his starts from this point forward. will be on the shorter end as the team monitors his innings for the rest of the season and his workload. Do you guys think that Chase Burns is a drop in redraft leagues? Obviously not Keeper Dynasty League.

Long term, he's going to be awesome. But in redraft, 98% rostered. What do you guys think about Chase Burns? I think if you need a Declare spot, it's probably fine. He might still be useful as a three or four inning guy in a categories league the same way. an elite reliever, an elite innings accumulating reliever is. Doubtful, you're going to get much out of burns in a points league still. So that would be where I'm most okay dropping him.

Those tend to be shallow leagues anyway. Ellie D. LaCruz was in the lineup as the DH on Monday. He left Sunday with left quad tightness. That is the same quad that bothered him in the second half of last year. Apparently he does have a small strain in that quad, but he's going to play through it. this does not seem very smart from the Reds perspective because I mean, Ellie is like the face of their franchise and you wouldn't want him to like mess that quad up even more

but he's playing for now so I guess as long as he's playing you just leave him in your lineup but I don't think he's going to run much rest of the season with that injury. CJ Abrams was scratched from the lineup on Monday due to a back tightness. Cite was activated. Do you think we should note for 2027 purposes

that the nationals did call. clarify that he is actually going to split his time between second base and shortstop the rest of the way. Yes. So entering next season with second base eligibility, not at all a given. Apparently, he has been playing better at shortstop and they want to reward him for that. So does not seem likely at this point that he's going to get second base eligibility to carry over to next year because he's got one appearance and they've got, what, 25 games left? So it just the math doesn't really work. the math ain't math and I get the impression

CJ Abrams doesn't want to move off shortstop and that's why I think is what I think is well I find it very funny because like presumably it's like oh short stops get paid more but like teams can just check like they have stats they can see that you're not good at shortstop

so you're going to have to play better at shortstop in order to for that to matter doesn't necessarily all come down to dollars there's a lot more prestige of playing shortstop you get a lot more balls hit your way. There's pride. It's because, you know,

the position you play is part of your identity. And it's tough to give that up. Yeah. But if we are keeping it a buck on C.J. Abrams, he is minus 17 outs above averages. He's been like the worst defensive shortstop in baseball since he joined the majors. First percentile range according to Stackess.

So, yeah. The way this whole thing has played out, like he's in the lineup. on Monday as a second baseman, and then he has back tightness all of a sudden. And he said recently he didn't want to move off of shortstop. Like, it all seems a little fishy here for CJ Abrams. Ketzel Marte was activated and in the lineup batting cleanup on Monday. A very bizarre situation, but he is back with the debacks, and he is back to being in the middle of that lineup.

So I don't want to play armchair psychologist here. Maybe I'm at risk of doing that. but trying to make sense of his comments, it seems like he was playing through injury, I guess maybe the hamstring, and just didn't feel like doing it anymore, so he just stopped showing up. I think there was a Ken Rosenthal article

where he kind of broke it down and said that Marte wanted to get an MRI, but the team didn't allow him to, or there was some kind of miscommunication there, like he was playing through injury and he wanted to, like, get treatment or something. something or and I don't know I guess maybe the team didn't want them to there was something like that but yeah it was I don't know still a weird situation I'm always I'm not a doctor

famously I don't know if there's some reason why guys shouldn't get MRIs like I know with like what's what's what's the cortisone shots there's like a limit to how much you can like safely have that done in a given year at x-rays too and yeah but I have no idea about MRIs I There might be some risk. I know there's magnets. I don't know how that work. But I'm always amazed when professional sports teams are like, he's not going to have an MRI.

It's like, just do it. You got the, it's right there. Yeah. There's like, I know, it's like, you have to swipe your card every time you do it. Like,

I figure you already paid for it, right? Like, I don't know how. I mean, I genuinely don't know how it works, but I'm just, I'm always amazed when professional sports teams are paying guys $25 million a year and they're like,

it's, he doesn't need an MRI. It's fine. Like, just do it. I'm pretty sure. sure they have to pay every time an MRI happens, but I have genuinely have no idea. Nobody likes

to go to the doctor, Chris. Everybody puts it off. Because like I remember a few years back, like, Carmelo Anthony had to get fluid drain from his knee and he was like, I do not want to do that. And I get that. I don't want to have fluid sucked out of my knee from a giant needle. If I can avoid that, that's reasonable.

But MRI is like, I guess you do have to get a shot, right? Like they got to put the stuff in you. That stuff feels weird. Yeah, it makes It makes you feel like warm all over. Oh, yeah. I had to get that when I was in the hospital a couple months ago. And it like had a very strong feeling I was going to throw up in the MRI machine,

which would have been a problem for everyone. Everybody involved. I didn't, just to be clear. Wilson Contreras was placed on the aisle with a left hamstring strain. And Mickey Gasper was recalled and he was in the lineup at first base for the Red Sox. And he hit another home run. I mean, that guy's been on fire. He's 8% rostered.

I think he is back to being a name of interest. and two catcher leagues. I guess I'll ask Mickey Gasper or Ethan Salas. I'm going to say Salas. I agree. I mean, he might just start at first base

every day and if that's the case. I can see the case for it. It's not a, I laughed because it's just funny to ask that about Mickey Gasper, who had zero home runs before, what, eight days ago? But the way he's playing, yeah. I mean, he might

be in the middle of a pretty good lineup moving forward. Other first base replacements, if you lost Wilson Contreras, some names in shallow leagues. Royce Lewis, Bryce Eldridge, Josh Bell, Thai France, who had another big game here on Monday. In mid-sized leagues, you have Christian and Carnacian-Carnacian Strand, although, of course, he was not in the lineup in Corse Field. That was annoying. Tim Tawa has first base eligibility, Kobe Mayo, Abamelic Ortiz, and Connor Norby. And then in the deepest of leagues, Nathaniel Lowe and Andres Chaparro, who I don't know how much he's going to play now that they have Johandi Morales. Connor Griffin will have his rehab move from AA to AAA starting on Tuesday.

Sounds like he could be back pretty soon. Garrett Crochet played catch off the mound on Monday. The Red Sox remained optimistic that Crochet could return as a reliever at some point in September. Joe Ryan will start a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. He's been out since August 7th with a glute strain. Sunny Gray had his next start push back to Saturday against the Orioles to get him more rest. I haven't seen any talk of an injury for Sunny Gray. but he's also just old,

so that could be part of it. The Marlins plays Xavier Edwards on the aisle with a left thumb sprain. Javier Sinoja started at second base with Leo Jimenez at third base on Monday. Speaking of the Marlins for a second, Chris, did you see Esteri Ruiz's throw from the outfield?

No, I did not. Look it up while I'm talking. It was one of the worst throws I have ever seen in my life. Second base replacements in shallow leagues, if you lost Edwards, who has been struggling a lot over the past couple months. There's Luke Keishel, Royce Lewis, Zach Gelov, Travis Bezano, Willie Castro, some second baseman in mid-sized leagues, Tommy Edmund, Tim Tawa, Anheil Hanow and Connor Norby, and then some deeper replacements.

You have David Hamilton and Vaughn Grissom. Chris, what do you think of that throw? So that didn't go the way I thought it was going to go, which it didn't go the way Estuary Rees thought it was going to go clearly either. I expected it to be kind of like a dribbler like he just threw it into the ground he did the exact opposite of that he sort it way over third base by about 40 feet

that was almost impressive he was off by 50 feet man it was like all the way down the left field line it was such a bad throw the Orioles claimed Luis Robert off waivers from the Mets and this is interesting I didn't think another team would pick them up and pay the remaining

$5 million salary do you think Luis Robert just jumps in as a near everyday player for the Orioles? It's a little bit crowded and the timing is weird because Colton Couser's been better lately, but I think the defense is not great from either him or Lodi Tavares or whoever else is playing center field for the Orioles. So I think from that perspective, it's an interesting fit. Couser did rob a game-winning home run tonight.

Fantastic catch for the final out of the game in Coorsfield. That was pretty cool. Poor Jake McCarthy. Yeah, I would guess Louise Roberts is going to play pretty regularly, but I don't think it'll be literally every game. In deeper leagues, I picked up Lioti Tavaris this week

for those awesome matchups. So he's probably not going to play anymore this week with Louise Robert coming in, so that's not great. George Lombard has missed two straight with that knee inflammation. Bryce Miller will rejoin the Mariners' rotation following the injury to Emerson Hancock.

Joe Musgrove is expected to make one more rehab start before returning to the Padres. Justin, what, anything on Joe Musgrove? Oh, that's frustrating because it seemed like way ahead of Nick Povetta. And now it's like, he's going to make his debut at the same time as Nick Povetta? Well, probably not the same time, but.

Yeah, he might. Justin Steele will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. He will return as a reliever this season. J.T. Ginn's next start will be pushed back to this weekend in Seattle as the A's look to manage his workload. Pejor Ramirez was out of the lineup Monday, due to back spasms. Luis Renhifo will miss the remainder of the season

with an ACL tear and MCL sprain in his right knee. Brutal injury, he was actually playing pretty well for the Padres. The Tigers promoted infield prospect John Peck on Monday. Scott, do you have anything on John Peck? 24 years old? Let me see, I took some notes on him yesterday. Obviously not a big prospect. Wasn't that the kid from Drake and Josh?

I don't remember that kid's name. It was Josh Peck. Oh, okay. He had pretty good numbers in the minors, but he didn't hit the ball especially hard, and I don't think it's going to be more than a bit player in the majors, if that. Again, that is John Peck being promoted by the Tigers. Let's fire up the dropometer for some other starting pitchers here,

and George Kirby took another step back. Scott, you know what that means. Five innings, five runs, two walks, two strikeouts, two homers allowed here for George Kirby, who bounced back great in his previous start, but clearly was not that player here. He's another one who has like home road splits on the season, which is like the Mariners pitchers. Last seven starts for Kirby. It's a 614 ERA 156 whip. He's still 96% rostered. Where would you guys put George Kirby on the drop home?

I mean, I'm not dropping him. Yeah. I don't, I guess I don't want to quite go zero, but maybe like a two. I agree. You're starting him at home against the athletics this weekend. You're probably not starting him at the athletics next week, though. Yeah. It's one of those, I mean, he's kind of becoming a charzart, you know?

because he just seemed like he made such strides last time out okay I moved George Kirby back up in my ranking some obviously not near where he was at the start of the season but then this happens and he made some arsenal changes last time that I kind of thought maybe he'd stick with given the success he had he he emphasized a splitter

threw it 14% of the time last time. It's not a pitchy throws very often normally, and he stopped doing that again, gave up the splitter after one good start. He brought back the sinker after basically ditching it last time, and the sinker's a pitch. It's got like a 340 batting average against for him. So I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know what to make of George Kirby at this point, but he just seems to not have a good grasp on what to do anymore. From a fancy perspective, he's kind of coasting on reputation at this point. This guy hasn't been that good the last two seasons.

And I think last year it was easy enough to write it off as, okay, he missed the first two months of the season with shoulder injury, but it's been healthy this season. I don't think he's had any kind of eye else in this season, right? And he's been worse.

Strike out right? Yeah, it's, I'm not going to give up on him in the long run because there's clearly talent there. There's clearly a great home ballpark to help him live up. I think he needs to get out of Seattle, frankly. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I think they've meddled with him so much like they've meddled with all their pitchers that he's kind of lost his way. And I know, I forget who it was, but one of the national writers that the trade deadline mentioned a lot of teams were interested in him because they thought they could fix them.

I feel like Nick Pollock has brought up like Kirby getting out of Seattle and potentially being better as well. That may be who I'm referring to, actually, when I said one of the national writers. So it doesn't mean it's going to happen, but I don't know. I'm kind of over the sinker thing, to be honest. I feel like I'm constantly talking about,

oh, thank goodness this guy threw a sinker less this start because it has a 350 batting average. against and like but that's that's the trade off you make with the sinker right you're not going to miss many bats but some guys have a better feel for it or some guys do have a platoon advantage when they throw their sinker right but when the batting average is that high that's a really bad batting average yeah it depends on the pitcher um and obviously it could be less an effective pitch on its own than something that

bolsters the arsenal but like it just I don't know it it it it It feels like when the game got away from throwing sinkers, pitching got a lot better on the hole. And now they brought it back because it worked for some pitchers. And it just, it's the sort of trend that I think doesn't need to become as league wide as it has. All right. His start next week is on the road. George Kirby, his start the week after that, looks like it's also on the road.

it's at the Angels. There's a chance that it could be in Corris Field. That would be pretty terrible. I would put this number a little bit high. I would put this out like a five on George Kirby. I think in shallow leagues, you can, especially in a daily lineup league.

If you need that spot to stream, I would be all right. I mean, yeah, if he's not at home the next two weeks, yeah, that's pretty reasonable, yeah. Yep. Next up here we have Peter Lambert,

who has regressed a little bit here. Four and two thirds, two runs loud, five walks, six strikeouts. against the White Sox. His previous two starts before this were very bad as well. It was nine earn runs over three and two thirds. The other one wasn't, you know, I probably overstated, like awful or whatever,

but the other start was five and two thirds, seven hits three runs, three walks, five strikeouts. He just hasn't looked as good. Hasn't looked as good lately. 80% rostered. Where would you guys put Peter Lambert on the dropometer? It always seemed kind of fake. So particularly now that presumably he'll still make a second start this year, and I imagine that'll be his last two-star week of the year.

So even with a good matchup, I'd be a little hesitant to use him at this point. So I would go, I'd probably go like six or seven. Let's say six and a half. I always like the halves. You can't do it. There you go. There you go. We got it, baby.

Let's go. 65% on the graphic. For the people listening, there's a little graphic, and Frank has a little needle that he can play with to show. I have this interactive tool now for drop home meter and worryometer, so I'm just here messing around with it. The last name on the list is Gage Jump, who unfortunately we were recommending as a two-star pitcher this week.

He got destroyed at the Rangers. You would think, you know, on the road has a better chance here. Seven runs allowed over four and a third, three walks, two strikeouts. Still got some whiffs here, 13 on 91 pitches. His first six starts were great. His next 12 starts,

706 ERA 181 whip. 63% rostered is Gage Jump. Where is he on the dropometer? Oh, man. I want a jump ship. I think it's fair to attach the Charazard label to gauge jump. He might be the new face of Charzard. frankly, because this is...

I don't think anyone will overtake McKenzie Gore, Scott. I mean, he's the OG, but like Gage Jump has taken it to another level because he'll do what he did last time. If he throws 65% of his pitches for strikes are better, like it goes great.

This start, he didn't even throw 60% of his pitches for strikes, and that seems to be the tipping point for him, like whether Gage jump, destroys you or whether he destroys his opponent. And you obviously have no way of predicting how that's going to go heading into the start. It's just a total dice throw. And I think the bad starts are so bad that the good starts aren't worth it.

I agree. I mean, he's at like 11, 12% walk rate across both Triple N, the majors. this season. That's just, it's not totally untenable, but like Blake Snell's kind of the only guy who actually makes that work consistently. So he's got to improve that. I think he's a really talented pitcher. I think the stuff absolutely is there for him to be a difference maker in fantasy, but he's not right now because the command and control just isn't, isn't where it needs to be. And gauge jump is going to be on my sleepers list for next season. But I don't think you need to roster him right now. I'm going to

only put it at a seven though, and I'll tell you why. The athletics have the best pitching schedule remaining, as we talked about last week. I would be afraid of somebody using him against

me based on that schedule and the good version showing up. Maybe it'll go the other way. They'll use him against me, and it'll be the reason I win, but I'd just rather remove that variable from play. if possible. I'm still putting it at a seven,

which means I'm fine dropping him, but you need to actually be dropping him for something you want, not just spite dropping him. Yeah, I don't think anybody's going to add him. I mean, he might show up on the sleeper pitchers list the rest of season with those matchups.

I got to come up with 10 names every week. It's just tough too, because how many of those starts are at home, I would think you probably never want to use him at home. And then, you know, he has a two-star week where both are on the road this week, and the first one on the road here, he gets walloped. So it's like, how can you have any level of confidence in using gauge jumps?

So I would probably be more closer to a 10 as well. Just jump in ship for anyone else that pops up here. Let's take our final break. When we return, I've got some waiver names. I've got Hey, real quick. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's run through some waiver wire hitters from Monday's action.

And Walker Jenkins is on the board at his first career home run. it did come off of a position player, but he is up to 64% rostered, and he's looked pretty good so far. Ty France is picking things back up. Last 19 games, 313 with three home runs and OPS over 900. First half of August, you know,

he did slow down a little bit, but again, Ty France has picked things back up here. He's 51% rostered, and Cam Smith had himself a better August here as well. He went 2 for 4 with a double triple, 2RBI, he hit 250 with four homers, and a 785 OPS in the month, he is 40% rostered. Do you think any of these three roster rates need to be higher?

Jenkins at 64%, France at 51%, Camp Smith at 40%. I think Jenkins and France do. I think especially France. Like, guys got like an 860 OPS on the year and a good batting average, and he's still only 50% rostered in CBS leagues? Like that seems crazy to me On the one hand I get in

We've talked about this a lot Like first base being as deep as it is But you know It's down Nick Kurtz It's down Wilson Contreras It's gonna be down more guys Probably Over the next four weeks

And I think Ty France is closer To being a must start Than a waiver pickup I'm not exactly calling him a must start But I would not be ashamed to start him in any league going forward. I think I'd rather start him than Christian Walker. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I'm sure that's not the only first base. I would make that swap straight up in like a shallower league. I would just drop Christian Walker for Typhins. Yeah. I mean, I think even like a points league, you compare. I know Luis Garcia is having an awesome season, but he does still sit out. So, you know, that's, I think he started a couple against lefties lately, but

you know, that that's a conversation worth having. And then like, you look at like a points league, like Josh Naylor. He's been pretty bad all season. I know he's been better in the second half, but better in the second half is still worse than what Thai France has been. So those are all worthwhile conversations to have. Yeah, I mean, we're at the point. If you're in a head to head league and you have a playoff matchup, like you just need to

start someone who is doing something now or has really good matchups. If you have like a dead spot in your lineup, someone that's underperformed all. year. Now is the time where you can go ahead and make that swap. Not that I want you to overthink this time of year, but it's like, yeah, if you haven't been getting much from Walker or Josh Naylor, like, just you can move on at this point. As for Walker Jenkins, he needs to be more roster than 64%. But when he got called up, we talked about Mustad everywhere, even the shallower leagues. I faced a decision in one of my shallow league's three outfielder points league

and I couldn't find a way to get him on my roster. I think I did put in a low bid for him just just in case but like somebody obviously outbid me for him and I was fine with it. I get not adding him

in a shallow three outfielder league if you've got a full outfielder and don't want to clutter your bench. I get it. But somebody in your league could use Walker Jenkins. The biggest knock on him now is that he's hit ninth every game. Yeah. And I don't know if there's going to be time for that to change, no matter how well he performs. But, you know, so far he's done pretty well.

I agree. Some deeper names here. Vaughn Gristam 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI. He is 11% rostered. He has first, second, and third eligibility. Jonah Cox is making some noise here for the Giants 2 for 5 with his fourth home run. He has started 6 straight. And in 14 August games, 2.97, 3 homers, 4 steals.

945 OPS. He was having a very good season in the miners as well. And anything here with Cody Freeman of the Rangers, two for four with two RBI and a steel. He has started 11 straight, and during that span, 324, one homer, one steel. Scott, I feel like he's a name you brought up last year.

I know he had a pretty big season in the miners last season. But anything here with Cody Freeman, Jonah Cox, Von Grissom, some deeper names. I've been kind of impressed by Vaughn Grissom. Like the numbers aren't amazing, but I figured he was just done. We were done with him in fantasy. He's hitting the ball a tiny bit harder this year.

Still only 28th percentile, so it doesn't hit the ball very hard. The biggest change, though, is that a lot more fly balls. And despite this big game, he hasn't actually produced that well in August, so I don't think we're at a point we're adding Vaughn Grissom outside the deepest of leagues,

but he may still have a career ahead of him. I think this year has shown that much. That's the most I could say for this group. Yeah. They're kind of, they're non-prospects who made some noise in the minors this year. And like, look, in LAL only, of course, anybody who's getting playing time is worth adding.

And so we could mention them for that reason. but they're definitely players who don't need to be on the average fantasy players radar unless they do something to put themselves on the average fantasy players radar. The waiver wire pitcher of the night was Walbert Arrania who was awesome against the Yankees, seven innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts,

zero walks, that is the key. He threw 72% of his pitches for strikes. First pitch strikes to 19 of 25 batters. That is a 76% clip. He had 16 whiffs on 95 pitches. Look, we've mentioned it already a few times, but Walbert-Irania definitely in that Charzard category. When the control is off, it is really off,

and he can just straight up have some bad starts. But his stuff is filthy, though. Like, when he's on, he's unhittable like he was in this one. So I don't know that I'd put him in that Charzard category. And I say this apologetically, because I did not put him in my sleeper pitchers as a two-star pitcher, and I did not recommend him as a streamer. yesterday, and he had his best start of the season.

So, like, I feel bad about that. But you look at the game log, yes, his two starts prior to this one weren't very good. They weren't like Gates jump bad. They just weren't very good. And the rest of his game log, there's like two misses the entire season otherwise. So ground ball pitchers tend to have really high floors from start to start. They don't always have the highest ceilings, and I don't think Walperor-Ranea's ceiling is particularly high. though I do think it's higher than the average ground ball pitchers.

And I would be fine using him, I think, with any matchup going for. Not saying he's must start, but like if you're not sure who to plug into your pitching staff, I think Walbert Arania is always going to be an okay choice. I do think from a long-term perspective, the ceiling here could be very, very high. It just comes down to the walk rate. You know, I don't think because he threw a bunch of strikes in this one that we, We can project that out the rest of the way. But he is the type of pitcher that if the light ever goes on, it could be very, very impressive.

It's just we have spent three years saying that about Jose Soriano and kind of falling for it when he does it for a couple of weeks. And then he regresses. So I think Walburne Rania is probably someone who's going to be a very, very popular breakout candidate next season to the point where I could see his price getting too high. with too many people baking in that improvement already. But it's true. If he gets the walk rate below like four per nine, you know, I think you could see like a Sandy Alcantra type trajectory for Walbert-Darangia.

Remember, Sandy Al-Condra couldn't throw strikes early on in his career, too. So he's a fascinating pitcher for 2027 for sure. Would you drop any of the drop-a-meter names for Walbert-Rania Kirby, jump? Jump and Lambert. Yeah. Lambert and jump. Jump and Lambert, yeah. Okay.

Not Kirby. I had two very deep names on here. I probably don't want to spend too much time on them, but did you guys see anything from Cade Povich or Robert Stock? They had decent starts. I noticed Povich struck out 11 in his final start at AAA prior to being called up again here. And I always feel like there should be more there with him because he has these flashed. But I don't see enough to I don't even know if this was a spot start or not last time it came up

It was just for a start or two So I don't think we can count on him in fantasy It's just more does Kate Povich have a future in the Orioles rotation or is he always going to be in this limbo Where you know they're calling him up when they need a spot starter I don't know But he had a good start here and his last minor league start was really good and He's had flashes before I remain I remain interested

whenever I see him in the box score. We'll just put it that way. And Scott, unfortunately, it turns out Elma Rodriguez was not a glue guy after all.

Rough start from here on Monday. Hey, real quick. Hey, real, very quick. A quick thought on each of these names. Michael Harris continued his great season. He had his 23rd home run. But I just thought it was interesting.

His steals are down from 20 to 10. And his sprint speed is down quite a bit. So I'm not really sure what that's about. It's still a great season. but not as many steals as usual. Antoine Richardson. They're going to steal more bases than they did last season. They had 82 last year.

They have 75 right now entering today. So they are going to beat that. Where are they for Michael Harris? Yeah. It's mostly gone to Austin Riley. He's got like six. Yeah, the fact that sprint speeds down a little bit is, you know, worrisome, I guess.

Michael Harris is still only 25, though, so I don't... Doesn't Allbies have one? Just one steal? If that. Okay, so Riley has nine. I undersold it. Yeah, he's been...

He's more than double his career. He's having the exact reason we all hoped you would. Albies has three. Three, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Coonja has 19. Harris has 10. Jorge Mateo had 10 before.

You go. And Austin Riley has nine. yeah. Hey, Matt Olson has four. Good for him. All right. So. All right.

Well, still a great season for Michael Harris, who also has improved mightily against lefties. So shout out to him. Mani Machado, four for five with a double and a run scored. His previous 29 games before this, 209 with one homer, two steals, a 562 OPS. He is now 34 years old. I kind of just think that age is catching up to him. K-rate is up to a career high. quality of contact is down.

It just looks like Machado's just getting older. I mean, he got really hot mid-season, kind of about the same time Fernando Tatis picked it up. And that gave me hope that he was, it was clicking again for him. But obviously, the numbers from the past 29 games don't lie, and been pretty bad again.

Yeah. And so I imagine Mani Machado is not somebody who's going to go in the top 100. in drafts next year. Just one month with an OPS over 800 this season for Manny Machado. Ryan Jeffers, he needed a big game. He got it. Two for three with a double dong, four RBI.

His previous 36 games before this, so since coming back from the Ham A bone injury, 246 batting average three homers, 729 OPS, and the quality of contact is way down. 85.7 average EV, a 6% barrel rate. So it kind of feels, Chris, there's two ways you could go. here because like maybe Ryan Jeffers was just playing over his head and he was always going to regress

or maybe the ham Apoen has just kind of you know slowed his season down. Uh, poor Cano Lostos. I think the answer is both. Um, he was never that good. Ryan Jeffers looked like one of the 10 best hitters in baseball for the first month and the half of the season or whatever. And he's not that. We know that. Um, and then he got hurt and probably isn't. I don't want to say he's not 100% healthy, but it's just that can be an injury that the effects of it linger

and he's probably just cold as well. I think he's a pretty good hitter, but even like the overall number is still 870 OPS. I don't think he's anywhere close to that good. I think you take 100 points off Ryan Jeffers OPS, and I feel like that would be a pretty good spot to place expectations for him. So he's a fringe number one catcher.

not a superstar, which is fine. The biggest disappointment for me since coming back, he's only playing like two out of every three games, which is it. There are enough good catchers who play a lot more than that, that Jeffers definitely seems like an also ran in that competition. Yeah, that's fair. Next up, I feel like we haven't heard much

about Munitaka Morikami lately. He went 0 for 2 with RBI, three walks, one strikeout, 45 games since returning from that hamstring injury, hitting 189, 9 homers, the OPS is around 750, 35% carry. So that number has gone up. And some of the underlying plate discipline stuff has gotten worse since returning from injury. I don't know, Scott, temperature check here on Morikami. I don't know how feel about this one. Well, I can't say I'm surprised. even at his best, I was thinking, yeah, a batting average is going to have to go down, given the amount of swing and miss in his game.

Has there been too much of a correction at this point? Maybe, but not necessarily. I will point out that even with his batting average, now under 220 and, of course, a million strikeouts, Murakami's head-to-head point per game average, which of course is not his optimal format. It's 3.1. It's very good.

I mean, Yandi Diaz is 3.15, and Head to Headpoints is his optimal format. Yeah. Yeah. So it's still really good. I don't know that you need to be starting him at points league at this very moment, but he's still had a good year for points league. He's going to be a fascinating player for 2027 too. I was in on him coming into the season because his price was just so,

low, but there's just a difference between when he costs the 220th pick or whatever and when he costs like, I don't know, 120. And tend to think it's probably going to be a no for me if it's that price, but he's going to be very team build dependent because you're going to have to either punt batting average or really insulate it to make up for what the damage he's going to do. because I think he's going to go down as one of the biggest batting average drains of fantasy relevant players. I think there's going to be so much bust potential for Murakambi every year. Like that doesn't mean he's not going to have a good career.

It's just sort of like Javier Baez. He was in my bust list for like six straight years and eventually he busted. You know, he didn't have the late career that so many players of his caliber do. and you don't know when it's going to happen, but the vulnerabilities here are so significant, even if it's not a total collapse like in Baez's case,

like it could just be a year where he gets his 20th percentile outcome, and it makes him totally useless. I think that's in the cards for Murakami. Hey, real quick, Jacob de Grom continues to pitch well at home. Seven shutout innings, one hit, eight strikeouts to zero walks, He had 19 whiffs on 85 pitches. The updated home road splits 242 ERA at home, 586 on the road. I don't know why there are so many pitchers with drastic home road splits this season.

But DeGrom is one of them. Yeah, I mean, I'm inclined to not put much weight on this one because Jacob DeGrom's been around a while. It's not like we're just discovering who Jacob deGrom is now and oh, maybe he's not a guy who can pitch in this environment. I think we know he can pitch anywhere. You know, there have been some bad starts recently. The previous one was awful, but I think this is a reminder that Jacob de Grom is still must start, basically.

I do know that ballpark in Texas, the newer ballpark that they've made there is, it plays much more pitcher-friendly. So I think that's just something to keep in mind for their pitchers. I mean, you don't really want to play the matchups with DeGrom, but, I mean, We might be at that point in its career. Second best pitchers park and baseball over the past three seasons. Again, that's out in Texas. Last three names that I have here,

all three I think are kind of like pitching over their heads, but they're getting it done right now. It's Clay Holmes, who in five starts with the Cubs, has a 155 ERA and a one whip. Aaron Nola, who over his last seven starts, has a 250 ERA, but that also comes with a 126 whip. And Brandon Fott, who just had another quality start. And he struggled the two starts before this, but still in 12 starts since being recalled at the end of June.

222 ERA a 0.95 whip. So, Chris, I don't think any of us kind of buy any of these three pitchers, but do we just continue to throw them out there while they're pitching this way? I think Holmes is, yeah, I think Holmes is worth buying into. Now he's already up to 83% rostered, so it's not super actionable. I like him as a pitcher. I just don't buy like a 155 ERA Of course, but you want to buy that for anybody. Yeah, nobody's a 155 ERA pitcher,

especially not a guy who gives up as much contact as Clay Holmes does. But this is a perfect marriage of player and team because the Cubs, even without Danesby-Swanson, still have a very, very good infield defense. Maybe it's not far and away the best in baseball anymore, but it's still very good. And Clay Holmes gets a ton of ground balls. So I think this is going to be pretty good for him.

I don't think you should expect a lot of eight strikeout starts from him moving forward. I don't think you should expect a 155 ERA moving forward. But even if it's a 355 ERA and a 118 whip, that's still a very useful player. And that's not the ceiling for him, I think, because of the defense behind him. I think Clay Holmes is not a great pitcher. I think he's very like Marcus Stromanie. And in an average context, that's like a high three ZRA. Hatcher, who's pretty boring for fantasy.

But on the Cubs, I think he's well worth using for fantasy. Nola and Fott, I don't have very much faith in. I have slightly more faith in Nola than Fatt, but that's because I have zero faith in Farrant. Yeah, this is five straight really good starts for Nola with much better strikeout numbers during that time. And it's not like the drop-off for him was, evident right when it happened.

It was more, well, he's been bad for a long time, so clearly he's not good anymore. So I can't really pinpoint what's changed to make him so good over these last five starts, but I couldn't either when he went bad. So that makes me wonder if it's... It's just command, I think. The stuff ratings have mostly looked the same,

the velocity, pitch movement, all that stuff. Mostly looks the same. But his command went from, pretty bad before this most recent stretch to quite good. Well, can it stay quite good? I mean, because obviously it was for many years in the past. That's, I think that's the toughest question to answer when it comes to command because it's, yeah, it's just like, it's not throw harder or change your pitch mix. It's just, it just has to pitch well.

And some guys can sustain that and some guys can't. But I think we are at the point with Aranola where the highs and lows are going to continue to be frustrating for him. He's certainly not the ace he once was. But this stretch is certainly getting him back to, yeah, you can use him, which it didn't look like he was that guy anymore. Some hitting leftovers. I won't go through all of them. Just want to give a shout out to Rafael Devers, who is on fall. fire. He has five homers in his past 11. He's now up to 30 homers and has his OPS over 800 on the season. So he has really turned things around. And Bryson Stott, who had the longest home run of his career, 464 feet, 110 miles per hour off the bat. So shout out to Bryson Stott. Some other pitching leftovers here. I'll just mention the names. If you guys have a quick thought on any of them. Michael King, quality start. Taj Bradley, big bounce back nine strikeouts. Ian Seymour, 10 strikeouts. Gave up yet another home.

home run and Peyton Toley not at his best did not use his curve ball 10% of the times. I know. And he did in his previous five starts did Peyton Tolly and had a 237 ERA 102 whip 11.3K per 9. What are you doing? You tried to tell him Scott. What do you doing Peyton? Tolly. I do want to highlight Ian Seymour just yeah, the ERA is a little inflated 421 for the season. I think you just kind of live with it because he's good, so good everything else. I have 421 ERA. Okay, yeah, but 11.

14 whip, 11K per 9. The ERA estimators are better than the ERA. I think he's just good. He's not perfect. He's not an ace, but I think Ian Seymour is more or less someone I'm just starting

every time out. He's kind of like the latest iteration of a Joe Ryan or Shotee Iagga, but he gets even more strikeouts in those guys. You know what I've noticed? What have you noticed? With this stretch of starts

where he keeps giving up three runs, started throwing the sinker a lot more. More than 20% his last three starts, and you know the numbers on the sinker, 354 batting average against. And in his case, I just don't think like, I think you just kind of live with the home runs.

I think he's only throwing that sinker to try to get away from home runs so you get the ball on the ground more. Right. And I would guess he's only throwing it to lefties. When you walk live, Literally no one. Yeah.

As he has done now, at least in his last three starts, and you strike out, what, a third of the batters you face? That might be too much. I still throw it a bunch against righties. That doesn't, that seems dumb. 23% against right. Yeah, I think using the sinker against lefties is fine. I don't see any point in him throwing it against righties.

Yeah. Yeah, Seymour, man. The K-to-Walk stuff is great. It's a good whip, but probably a higher ERA, because he has allowed 20 home runs on the season now. The call to the bullpen for the Mets, Kodi Senga, got the ninth with a one-run lead. He did pick up his fifth save.

For the Nationals, somebody named Eric Tolman, closed out the final two innings. They were two scoreless innings with four strikeouts for his first save. So, look, they've been searching all year. Perhaps he's the latest name to work in, but the nationals do not have a closer, and they never will ever again.

For the Astros, Josh Hader was unavailable. Brian Abrae, who picked up his eighth. save. For the Mariners, Andreas Munoz got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed a run, but it was mostly because of a bad misplay by Julio Rodriguez,

which caused a lead-off triple in the ninth inning. It was Andres Munoz's ninth blown save of the year. And then for the Orioles, Andrew Kittredge got the ninth with a one-run lead. He picked up his ninth save,

thanks to an amazing catch by Colton Kouser, who robbed a two-run home run to end that one. Andrew Kittridge, you owe Colton Kouser, steak dinner because that was amazing. I want to point out on Kodai Senga, this was his third time pitching in four days. So everything he does is new. You know, he's like a newborn baby here in the closers role.

But he pitched effectively in consecutive games over the weekend for the first time and then pitched the third time in four days. I'm going to guess he's going to get some time off here. So it was nice that he got the save here because I don't think he got a save in either of the previous two appearances. but just they're stretching him as a closer. They're testing him out and he's responding well. So I think that that bodes well for him.

And thank you, New York Mets. I am a Mets fan for the next couple days as they face the Tampa Bay Rays, although Yankees got destroyed by the Angels. So it didn't matter anyway. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Grayson Rodriguez up against the Yankees. We have Randy Vasquez at the Reds. Nick Lodolo against the Padre,

Sean Mania at the Rays. AJ Smith-Shawver at the Nationals. Connor prelip against the Tigers Randy Dobnack against the Marlins Robert Gasser at the Cubs Eric Lauer against the Cardinals We did lose J.T. Ginn on Tuesday So it's a pretty bad day

Nogers. Pretty grim It's not great. Dobnack, baby. Yeah, I don't buy it, but sure. The Marlins are pretty bad. And could see a good Connor prelip start but I don't think you can expect it.

I think there's just a lot of volatility here. If I had to choose, I would throw out Grayson Rodriguez and Mania, but I think it is as likely as they blow up as they help you. Yeah, I prefer Mania to Grayson Rodriguez. On Wednesday, we have Grant Holmes at the Nationals, Jacob Lopez at the Rangers, Cody Bradford, Home Against the Athletics,

Andrew Painter at the D-Backs, Patrick Sandoval against the Mariners, Landon Rup at the Pirates, Jared Jones, Johnny. Joey Cantillo against the Blue Jays, Dean Kramer against the Tigers, David Peterson against the Brewers, and Hayden Wisniewski home against the White Sox. This is Los Neschi's second start in a row against the White Sox, right? No, he faced the Yankees last time out, and he was pretty good.

Okay. Jacob Lopez should not qualify for this list anymore. It's a good matchup at Texas. I don't think the matchup matters at this point. I'd be willing to start Lopez against anybody. I think that's not quite as true for Andrew Painter, but it's kind of true of Andrew Painter as well. I think he's more qualified than anybody else on this list. Debacks are bad against Wrighties, too.

Yeah. And then Cantillo I don't hate. Kramer I don't hate. I don't love, but I don't hate. Sandoval against the Mariners? Yeah, I don't really trust it. Peterson, I don't hate against the, I mean, the Brewers are a tough matchup,

but a lot of what we said about Clay Holmes is also true. David Peterson. He's a groundball pitcher in front of argue with the best defense in baseball. So I think that's a good spot for him. He's been better with the Cubs too. David Peterson, that is. A lot of what we said about Clayhole.

It's not Graham's. Yes, yes, correct. Yes, Clayholmes. So we like Lopez. We like Painter and then a couple wild cards in there. Cantillo, Sandoval, David Peterson.

We'll throw those names out there. And we're already up against it. Continue to send in some team names. We'll read them next week. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts. Out of the shadows of Paramount Mountain, Axe, Tyrus, and Gileas, battle against the evil giant death adder. You better not be another mini-boss. You better be the final one.

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