Fantasy Baseball Today - Marcelo Mayer's Breakout, Two Complete Games & Fun with Arbitrary Endpoints! (6/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

David Peterson has a 2.74 ERA over the past two seasons (3:47). ... Jesus Luzardo bounced back in a big way (9:54). ... Marcelo Mayer had his breakout game (15:43). ... Schwellenbach turned in his first complete game (21:55). ... News (23:40): Jackson Jobe is set for Tommy John surgery. ... Let's have fun with arbitrary endpoints (30:26). ... Lane Thomas had a big game (43:46). ... Walker Buehler and David Festa had strong outings (48:53). ... Kris Bubic and Matthew Liberatore both ran into a brick wall on Wednesday (58:00). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:02:45). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Over the past two seasons, David Peterson has a 2.74 ERA. Maybe he's just good.

Welcome in to fantasy baseball today on Thursday, June 12th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. If you're watching us on YouTube, we're trying a different video set up. So let us know in the comments. Do you like it? Do you not? I don't know. We're kind of mess up.

Do you really want them to let us know, Frank? You know, the thing is people famously love change. And so I think it's going to go over great. Not a single complaint. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Well, anyway, today on the show, we've got two complete games in the same. day. What year is it? Marcello Meyer had his breakout game. We'll have some fun with arbitrary endpoints. Chris, I know you'll love that. And much more. Let's jump in. All right. That call comes courtesy of the W.EEI Red Sox Radio Network, also known as we. It just reminded me of that Geico commercial with the pig that's like, I know. I think that commercial is hilarious. They brought it back. That commercial makes me. me laugh every single time. Isn't it like 15 years old and they just randomly brought it back?

It's always in standard definition. Yeah. That guy who's like the Twilight Zone who introduces it like because that was a whole series of commercials at the time, it didn't seem out of place for him to say, did you know, Geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance? But now it's just like randomly thrown in with no context and kids who weren't there for the start of it. They don't know what's going on.

on kids don't watch commercials anymore what are you talking about what are we talking about scott let's talk about david peterson your player the day yeah david peterson threw a shutout how about that complete game shot at against the nationals six hits no walk six strikeouts um was good 13 swinging strikes five of them on the slider that is his best with pitch and it's a pretty good whiff pitch. It was better even earlier in his career, I would say. It had over a four, you used to have over a 40% whiff rate, but it's still, you know, mid 30%. It's, when he gets strikeouts, that's usually the reason why. And he's been missing bats at a pretty nice clip lately. Coming into this start, he, David Peterson had a 12% swinging strike rate in his previous six,

which is good. If he can sustain close to that, then it's hard to find much fall. in him. He's not a great control pitcher. And so the whip is going to run high, but he is among the best ground ball pitchers in baseball. I'm looking up exactly where he ranks among qualifiers.

Ground ball rate is a fifth. It looks like here. Behind just Jose Soriano, Andre Palante, Framber Valdez, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. I didn't realize Yamamoto was that good at getting grounders. But yeah, David Peterson, among the best. So that helps to limit damage. Of course,

he had an ERA below three last year, in large part because of those ground ball skills. The ground ball rates even higher now. He has an ERA below three. He's starting to get more whiffs like he did a few years back. And I don't know. It's hard to find too much fault in him. Earlier this year, my complaint was, well, yeah, he's not going deep into games. But even that's changed. Of course, the complete game here. Three of his last. four he's gone seven innings or more six of his last seven he's gone six innings or more so you know he's not an a's he doesn't have that kind of bad missing potential again the whip's going to run kind of high but is he somebody who you need to be mixing in at least needs to be rostered in every league at this

point it's hard to argue otherwise so yeah it depends what we're talking about right like do i believe David Peterson is a 285 ERA pitcher or whatever it is over the past two seasons combined. No, I don't. His FIP is 350 in that span. His ex-FIP is 386. His XERA is above four. You know, even if you take him as seriously as a low three ZRA guy, it's still a 128 whip in that stretch as well. It's still low strikeout rates.

Like it's kind of the only thing he does well. is ERA. But that's not to say he's not useful. Like if it's a 350 ERA and a highish whip, you know, that's a, that's a useful pitcher. I don't think he's an ace, certainly. I don't think he's even like a must start pitcher because ERA is not the only category. But I do think he's useful.

Yes. Let me bring this up as not so much because I believe it, but I guess just, just, to play devil's advocate. So one of the best groundball pitchers in baseballs I've brought up. With the strikeouts he's been getting recently, he's now at 8K per 9, a little over 8K per 9, and has shown he can sustain at least a low 3ZRA. I mean, who else, if I say, you know,

8 plus K per 9, but not quite a K per inning, elite ground ball rate, ERA and the low threes, left-hander. I know exactly. Who does that sound like? Framber Valdez. Okay. I thought you were going to say Max Fried. Wait, was it actually Framber Valdez, God?

Is that what you were going for? No, it was Framber Valdez. I mean, Peterson's control isn't near the level of Freeds. Okay, because, yeah, Fried was the guy who came to mind for me. And yeah, that's what I was going to say is big difference in whip. But even with Valdez, it's a huge. difference in Whip. Valdez, early in his career, whip was a legit weakness in his game. And I guess relative to other top 12, top 15-ish starting pitchers, you know, he tends to be more in the 1111,

115 range. That's good, but it's not elite. Peterson's whip is actively harmful. It's 119 right now. So it's after today, yes. Let's say, let's say from Vervaldez from three to four years could David Peterson be a poor man's Framber Valdez from three or four years ago? And I understand poor man's is a vague term that can cover up a lot of flaws. But I don't know. It may not be so wrong to think of him that way. Again, I'm kind of playing devil's advocate here because if Framber, if David Peterson has a five ERA over his next five starts and we don't want anything to do with him anymore,

I don't think it would be the most shocking thing. but it's not like this has come out of left field. It's not like it's not as uncharacteristic the way he's performed recently as like the way Matthew Liberator was performing earlier this year and now maybe maybe not so interesting anymore. I do think that David Peterson is a candidate to be a rankings riser for all of us. I mean, there are some players that just kind of like fall through the cracks. And I look at names that are like in the 50s and 60s at starting pitcher.

I don't really see a reason why he can't at least be in that range, like a top 70 starting pitcher. So I think he probably should at least be around there. And so I think I'm going to make that change and move David Peterson up quite a bit. And it's not just reacting to this start. Obviously, it was a great start. But, you know, he's maintained a great ERA for two years in a row. So perhaps, you know, finally deserves that credit. Chris, let's go over to you for your player of the night.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Sorry. Hazer Salzardo is mine. and if you are hoping that we have some grand unified theory, both of what went wrong for Jesus Lazzardo in his previous two starts, and then what went so right for him on Wednesday night, I don't got it.

I don't know, maybe you guys do. Oh, yeah, I do. Well, the only thing I can say is he was tipping his pitches and then he stopped tipping his pitches. That's the only thing that makes sense because that appears to be the case. Right, no, but I'm saying in the ways we traditionally try to evaluate pitchers looking at like the Arsenal, the movement profile, the way they're throwing their pitches, nothing ever actually looked all that wrong for Jesus Lassardo. Like his velocity was up a little bit. He got 10 strikeouts and six innings, one earned run against the Cubs, really good matchup or really tough matchup. His velocity on his four seamer was up. Point four miles per hour in this one. And so you could say, well, maybe that's it, except it's the exact. It's the exact. deck same velocity he averaged when the Blue Jays hit him for 12 runs in three and a third

innings two starts ago. He threw his four seamer more in this one, which not really the diagnosis that I, or the, the cure that anyone would have suggested for Hazers Lozardo turning things around because the four seamer, it's a decent pitch in that it's hard. he can get whiffs with it, but it tends to get hit really hard too. So I say all of that just to get to, I was building to it, Scott. Okay. I was building to the, I think he was tipping his pitches is probably the best explanation for what went so wrong for him.

And look, I- So it seems to, it seems like it's verified. We don't just have to theorize here. There was a count, the warmonger on Twitter. And he gave a hat tip to Scott Lauber, who is a Philly's beatwriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I didn't see what Scott Lauber wrote. Maybe all this comes from him originally. But the Warmonger Twitter account did a side-by-side video comparison of Luzardo.

The glove angle? Yeah. So from second base, he was, you could see from second base what his grip was, basically. And so the runner on second was doing something to signal to the batter. what was coming. And it looks like he may have even been using a bigger glove in this start to hide the hand better. And that account, the warmonger pointed out that in his, prior to the two miserable starts with a runner on second, Luzardo had a 143 batting average against a 34% whiff rate.

And during those two awful starts, it was a 900 batting average against with a 12.5% whiff rate. freight. And then, you know, he makes the change and suddenly he looks like the Cy Young contender he did prior to the two terrible starts. So I'm saying problem solved, get Lizardo back in your lineup. I mean, he did this against, wasn't it against the Cubs? Yeah. So I don't know.

It seems pretty clear to me. It stinks that, it stinks for roto, really, that you got those two starts where you have the 20 earned runs in six innings and blew up his ERA, blew up his whip. They're still blown up after this great start. It's going to take a long time to bring them back down to a place where you're happy. You drafted Jesus Luzardo. But hopefully he's well on his way now. And there's no undoing that in Roto.

So it's not even worth thinking about what Luzardo's overall ERA and WIP is just what it's going to be going forward. You can't undo. You can't unring the bell for those two starts. and that's unfortunate that that's already set in stone but look i think you probably needed to sit him here but now that we've seen him turn it back around and you know one of his best starts of the season he i think he's had it's really funny that if you look at the game log it's 10 strikeout game 10 strike out game 12 runs against the blue jays eight runs against

who uh the i can't remember who it was last time around. And then 10 strikeouts today. He had two of his three best starts of the season. The two worst starts of his career, like an all-time bad two-start stretch, and then comes right back with one of his four or five best starts of the season. It's,

it doesn't really, there doesn't seem to be any explanation except for that, uh, the pitch tipping. So I feel pretty confident that Jesus Lazzardo is going to be just fine. And hopefully everyone will just be aware of what went wrong this time and how to avoid it moving forward. Yeah, after the start, the ERA for Lazzardo is 423,

but the underlying number is still a great. It's a 265 FIP, 306X FIP, and really just a BABIP is a thing that stands out. And, you know, you give up all those hits and those two starts, a 376 Babbup for Lazzardo, 10 hits per 9, for his career, 306 Babbup. So it does seem like, yeah, he obviously had some pretty tough luck there. One instance where removing the two or starts might actually have some analytical value.

I'm writing it down. It's in Scott's analysis next draft season already. I've got it ready to go. Let's go. Let's get into Marcel O'Meyer, who had his breakout game thus far, two for four, with a double dong, two home runs here, 108.7 exit velocity, 418 feet. 104.9 exit velocity, 410 feet. So two pretty long homers here for Marcel O'Reier,

who all of a sudden, the stat line looks much better after this game. Hitting 250, he's got three homers, 836 OPS, 27% strikeout rate thus far. Ground ball rate is a little high. 53% rostered. He's got two position eligibility, third base shortstop. Don't want to put too much on one game, obviously, for a hitter here. But do you guys think that number should be higher?

53% for Marcella. The problem with Marcel O' Meyer right now is I think he's just a stash. Like, I don't think he's actually all that startable right now. And that's not to say I don't think he's good because I think he can be, but he had sat, what was it like four out of five games before this or something? He played three in a row, but then he sat four of the six before that. It's just the left. He's been sitting against the left.

And they, there was a quote from Alex Cora today where he was like, I've been doing platoon since 2018 and it's worked out pretty well for me. So I'm going to keep doing it. And like, has it? This is, well, this is the struggle because the Red Sox are trying to compete this year, whether they should be or not, they are. They were my AL champs. So I think they should be. And they also have. They also have three of the top, what, 18, 20 prospects in baseball and finding playing time for all three of those guys.

When they already had a full roster before those three guys were added is going to be really tricky. And balancing that is a really difficult thing. And I'm not even saying I don't think Alex Corr is the guy to be like I'm not saying I don't think he's a good manager. I just his job is to win games and to try to make the playoffs. And his job is not necessarily to get Roman Anthony and Marcelo Meyer five years from now to be superstars. Like that's part of the job and that will make his job easier in five years, but he might not be the manager in five years if he doesn't win games this season. So like this is the thing that's going to be really tough about this.

And so I do think Marcelo Meyer, he's what, 56% rostered you said? 53. I think it's fine to add him where he's available. Because it depends. It depends on what your situation is because it's not, I don't think Marcelo Meyer is worth using in fantasy with his current usage. So the hope is that he forces them to change that usage either by being so good that they just can't keep him out of the lineup, even against lefties, or that, you know, Rob Reff Snyder and Romy Gonzalez.

is his name. Yeah. And Abraham Toro, like this, this motley crew of lefty masters who are all hitting really well right now for the Red Sox. It should be noted that those guys just slow down

and they have to give Marcela Meyer opportunities. But that has to change before he can be useful for fantasy. So I think you can only view Marcelo Meyer as a stash, like what Roman Anthony was before he got called up. And a lot of leagues don't have the luxury of a stash. I think 53% covers all roto leagues. It covers all dynasty leagues. It covers a handful of the deepest head-to-head leagues.

And I think that's right. I think it's basically perfect. And, you know, more games like this. Like the main thing that's going to change Alex Cora's mind on whether Marcella should play against lefties is Marcella's killing it. And he can't take him out of the line. We've seen that with Michael Bush lately. Suddenly he started playing against left-handers because he's been killing it.

And so that's the best way to get around that. Now, as a rookie, will Marcella ever get to a point where he's truly killing it? Maybe this is the start of it. Maybe it's just a one-off. But until that happens, he's probably just somebody to scout or potentially stash if your league goes deep enough into the hit or pool. You have that luxury, yeah. All right. Let's take our first break before we do that.

Big thanks to everyone watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break. We'll be back right. after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Quickly, before we hit the news and notes, want to give some love to Spencer,

Schwellenbach, who was the other complete game of the day, five hits, two runs, nine strikeouts, zero walks, 15 whiffs on 105 pitches, 11 of those on the fastball. All of a sudden, that fastball, he's got eight plus whiffs on that pitch in three of his last four outings. And during that four-star stretch, it's a 222 ERA, 0.88 whip,

35 strikeouts to just two walks over 28 and a third. So we had a bit of a rocky stretch there for Schwellenbach. He wasn't getting that many strikeouts, but boom, looks like he's flipped a switch here. Yeah, I don't think we need to worry about Schwellenbach anymore. I don't know that he'll ever get to a point where he's a true number one in fantasy, but, you know, Max Fried wasn't for the longest time either. It's like, man, Max Fried is great.

I wish he'd get more strikeouts. but he just kept winning people fantasy leagues and look now he might win a Cy Young and I think I think Schwellenbach's kind of the right-handed version of that. Yeah, he does really good stuff in three out of the four categories. I guess wins,

the Braves are kind of mediocre right now, but I think they'll be at least a 500 or better team moving forward. Elite whip, good ERA. You can live with the low-ish strikeout. totals. I think that's fine. It just, it's just the difference between being the 16th best pitcher in fantasy and the sixth best pitcher in fantasy. He's probably more like the 16th. I think some people hoped he would be more like the sixth best. I don't think that's happening yet, but there's nothing wrong with being the 16th best pitcher in fantasy. All right. Let's get into the news

and notes. Jackson Job will undergo Tommy John surgery. And based on the timing, he'll miss most of next season as well. Huge blow for his dynasty value, obviously, and a rough go here for the Tigers. Not that he was having a great season here, but, you know, he was a highly regarded prospect, and this was supposed to be a big development season for Jackson Job. So a pretty big blow there for him and the Tigers. Cole Regens was placed in the aisle with a left rotator cuff strain. And before he was dealing with the groin, now it's the shoulder, which obviously is not great. and frankly, kind of came out of nowhere. I haven't locked into a few weekly lineups this week,

and we didn't really have any indication this was going to happen. So just kind of sprung up here on Cole Regans. Freddie Freeman is dealing with... I want to say this is like a big boy injury, too. He'd been dealing with a groin a couple times went on the aisle for that, but rotator cuff, that's a scarier thing. There was no sign of it, right? It doesn't have to be a long-term,

issue, but it often is. And sometimes turns into something even worse. So definitely my alarm is raised on Reagan's quite a bit, and he's going to move down my rankings by probably a few dozen spots. All right, Freddie Freeman is dealing with a quad injury, but we're still in the lineup here on Wednesday. Shane McClanahan will visit another nerve specialist within the next several days before determining the next steps in his rehab. Kevin Cash added that McClain

Han is once again in quote shutdown mode for now. And at this point, I really don't know if we're going to get anything from Shane McClanahan this season. Nathan Evaldi played catch on Wednesday. He's currently on the aisle with a right triceps injury. Jazz Chisholm was back in the lineup after leaving Tuesday with a neck injury, but then left Wednesday's game with left groin tightness. So we wait and see. Yelich was out of the lineup due to renewed swelling in his right wrist. Luke Weaver threw a bullpen on Wednesday and said afterward that he felt great. The Brewers are shifting Aaron Savali to the bullpen, which is great news for Jacob

Miziarowski. If he pitches well on Thursday, my guess is he'll stick around. Oh, gosh. Because we have this different view, and it's a narrower box for those who are watching on YouTube. It's a narrower box for each of us, a taller but narrower box. So you just see a shoulder wide, basically. And Chris's cat walked in front of them. And it was just a tail waving in his face. It looked like some kind of like Eltrich horror kind of creature popping up. Things are a mess. Right. I've got three children visiting this week and my sister-in-law.

I am confined to my office. This is where I'm sleep. This is where I live now. The cats are stuck in here and they are not happy about it. Nobody is handling this well. You may have been able to hear my cat has been screaming the entire podcast trying to get let out of the room. She does not deal well with change. And so she's lying down now on my keyboard.

Maybe she'll stay there, but probably not. I do want to go back to Cole Reagan's for just one second because I'm looking at the baseball prospectus recovery dashboard tool where they have a very extensive, presumably exhaustive record of injuries. You can search by injury type. I search for a rotator cuff strains for pitchers, and they have 21 in there that were specifically noted as rotator cuff strains. six of those 21 did return within two to four weeks. Looks like right around 20 days was the average time missed for them. The average time for the 21 as a whole is 61. So it kind of feels like you can come back after a couple of weeks from this injury.

And if you don't, it's probably more like two months or longer. So that's kind of my internal. And that's what I was thinking when I saw this injury with Reagan's anyway. So, yeah, it could be fundamentally a season ender for him, even if it's not totally serious. You can't treat it that way yet, but it could be. And in fact, that's probably the likelier scenario. Probably, yeah. I would say you shouldn't assume the best case scenario with this specific injury, unfortunately.

I should mention as part of the fallout there, this probably means Noah Cameron is going to stick around in the rotation for the Royals. And, you know, five quality starts in a row and then he had a rough one against the Yankees here. But for the most part, he's pitched well. We want more strikeouts. But he's been doing a good job keeping runs off the board. Max Scherzer will begin a rehab assignment with the AAA on Friday. The hope is for him to throw 60 to 65 pitches.

He is 56% rostered. Are you guys interested in stashing Max Scherzer? You can always use another pitcher. I'm not going to say it's a must, but I'm interested in seeing what he does when he returns. And if I had a spot to play with, I want to prioritize it over Jacob Mizorowski or anything, but sure. Brendan Donovan has a sprained capsule in the joint of his left big toe, which is very specific. He sounded optimistic that the IL won't be necessary. Austin Hayes underwent another MRI on his injured left foot.

that came back negative. He's still dealing with pain, unfortunately. So it looks like he's kind of at a halt right now. Cody Bradford threw a 22-pitch bullpen on Wednesday. Any interest in stashing Cody Bradford? Less than Scher, but not zero. Yeah. All right. It's just he's probably still a month plus away. Is Cody Bradford the kind of guy you need to wait a month for? If you have the IL spot, sure. And Patrick Bailey was placed on the aisle with a next drain, Chris, I am sorry for your dynasty team. It's a, it's a big blow. 24 teamer, which even, even pointing out it's a 24 teamer.

It's like, should Patrick Bailey be rostered? Well, there aren't a lot of good catchers out there in this league. Yeah. I'll say, I got a Redetmer save. Read Detmer's has 22 points this week somehow. Whoa. Flying high. All right.

Let's get into fun with arbitrary. points, the hitter edition. And I'm just going to run through some players here. If you guys have anything to comment on for any of them, feel free. Jump in. Marcus Simeon, he's coming alive. One for four with his seventh home run. Last 11 games. He is hitting 459 with four homers, 13 runs, 10 RBI, three steals, and an OPS over 1,500. Is Marcus Simeon back? I genuinely think he might be okay. I'm only going to say might because, um, I think this is the controversial take, the more controversial take to say, you know, he might be okay.

Everybody was riding him off completely. But we've seen this from Cindy and before. And the track record speaks for itself. I basically had him buried in second base rankings. I moved him back up to 12 today. So it was like, all right. It kind of looks like he's coming around here. Big game for Brent Rooker, who went four for five with a double dong three RBI.

and in his last 20 games, he's hitting 380 with five homers, 18 RBI, and an OPS over 1,000. Red Rooker is good. Yeah, I mean, this is one where, like, he has an 840 OPS for the season. He's on like a 35 homer 90 to 100 run and RBI pace. I don't even think we need to do arbitrary end points here. He's just good. He's good. Yeah, I think he's just a really good hitter.

Yeah, the strikeout rate so much better. year. Wow. 21%. It was 29 last year. Yeah. All right. Brent Rooker. Next up, we've got Brandon Nimmo big game. Two for three with two homers in this one. Last 15 games, he's hitting 310 with four homers, 13 runs scored, three steals and a 954 OPS. Scott, you're the Brandon Nimmo guy. I am. It's coming around. He's coming around. Yeah. The only thing I'm really disappointed in is he's stopped walking at his premium clip, the one he's sustained for his whole career. And so that's suppressed his points league value a bit,

made him less valuable in that format than he normally is. But who knows, maybe those will start to come around now that pitchers have his power bat to fear. All right, next up, Juan, so toe for four, no more. Two for four with his 13th home run. Last 12 games, he's hitting 390 with five homers, and OPS over 1,400.

and he is absolutely destroying the baseball, which we figured what happened eventually. Like, I can't say nobody was worried because I know that's not true, and I know how people are, but nobody should have actually been worried about Wantsota. I think it's more so, Chris, just the first year of a mega contract in a new place.

I mean, we do get down seasons. And even with this hot stretch, it still is a downseason for Soto. Sure. You can do this for the next 20 games and everything will just turn out. to be fine. But it also wouldn't surprise me if based on what we saw last year at the Yankees,

he doesn't live up to that expectation. Sure. And I don't think you should have expected that. And I don't think like, I think it's arguable that Juan Soto was overdrafted because he was like a top six to eight pick in a lot of leagues. And like, you were,

you were making the case at the time to be fair to be fair to you. What that? That you thought he was being overdraft. Yeah. No, that, because like it was a big part. park downgrade and we had seen him struggle struggle but like again it's it's like if he's the 16th best player in fantasy versus the sixth that is frustrating because you probably drafted him as the

six best player in fantasy that's the difference between him and spencer schwellenbach as schwellenbach was like the 30th starting pitcher drafted but that's not going to be the reason you don't win your league yeah like that he's still been and will be a very good player like he's on like a hundred and 30 run pace if I'm doing the math in my head correctly. You know, it's crazy is he's had a down season. He's averaging 3.5 fantasy. Yeah, like, he's still an awesome player. So it's like, yes, it's fresh.

I understand it's frustrating when your first round pick is struggling, but there was never any reason to believe that Juan Soto wouldn't be very, very good. The expected stats are still amazing too for what that. Better than last year, I believe. I don't know about that, but they are very, very good. They underperformed as expected stats last year, right? They were better at one point. Let's talk about Christian Walker,

who had one of his better games of the season three for four with his ninth homer for RBI. Last 15 games for Christian Walker, 291, four homers, 13 RBI, and 866 OPS, 92.4 average exit velocity. The biggest issue for Walker this season that I could see is just the strikeout rate. So if he can kind of figure that out, I think maybe we can get the Christian Walker we were expecting. this is another one where the underlying numbers have mostly been there all along like this like you said the strikeout rates a little high and the fact that it's another 34 year old first baseman who signed with the astros like the the oh man i'm completely blanking on the the former white sox the hosea brayu comps were were obvious but the underlying numbers have still mostly been very good for christian walker um so i I really haven't moved him down very much in my rankings, even though he's been really bad.

I think I've still kept him as a top 12 first baseman. Yeah, he's been 10th for me at the lowest. So I didn't really lose faith in Christian Walker. I do have him lower than that. I have him behind like Vinny Pasquantino, who's been hot for a long time now. And let's see. Yeah, I moved him down to 15th. I have him behind Hoskins, Vinnie P.

But I'm seeing now, Scott, you have him down at 20th at first base. So, yeah, I want him ahead of Hoskins right now who's been ice cold in June. He did Homer here on Wednesday, but he'd been like three for 35 prior to that. Michael Bush has really picked things up and is playing more regularly against lefties now. I would prefer both Caglio and Kurtz to Walker. I don't necessarily, like I don't think that's obvious. I don't think it wrong to have Walker ahead, but I'm less sure that even if he turns things around,

it's going to be a great improvement over those guys. All right, not so fun with arbitrary endpoints here. Willie Adomis had a big game three for four with his seventh home run, three runs, three RBI. But in his previous 21 games, he was hitting 101 with, with one homer, two extra base hits, a 393 OPS. It has been a rough go for Willie Adama's first year in San Fran. And he was a, I dropped him down a few spots in the shortstop rankings.

I mean, it's such a great position and he just is not performing. So that feels warranted. Yep. Other than last year, Willie Adamas has been kind of fringe. Yeah. Like, worse than Danesby Swanson. most of the time, right? And so I think it's fair.

Like none of us really bought into what he did for the Brewers even before he signed with a team with a much worse venue in San Francisco. And so the fact that he's fallen so short of expectations through two months, given our already our existing bias against him, fair bias against him. Yeah, I think it's totally fine to move him down at that very deep position. Let's talk about Lars Neupar who has gone ice cold. 0 for 5 with a golden sombrero last 21 games. He's hitting 176 with one homer,

34% K rate and OPS right around 500. Still 86% rostered, should he be? Lars Newport. It seems a little high, especially since, I don't know, like points leagues, you would think he would have an advantage there, but even his point per game average is not that impressive. What's weird is, like,

he's doing what we've long wanted Lars Newpar to do. his launch angle is three times as high as it was last year. His pull air rate is the second highest of his career. And yet it still hasn't translated to, well, I guess it has translated to more power than last year. But like the overall numbers are pretty underwhelming still. And that's not to say Lars Neupar can't get hot again, but I moved him down quite a bit in my rankings.

He's still in the top 50 in the outfield. So yeah, five outfield leagues. You're certainly holding on to him. but I don't think it's a must in three outfielder leagues. Can I point out another one since I was just looking at my shortstop rankings? Sure. You know who's been absolutely ice cold for the last like about three weeks? Haraldo Pardombo.

I don't know if anybody's realized. He's hitting like 120 over his last 16 games with one home run, no steals. And like eight runs and eight RBI in 16 games while. hitting third primarily. That's pretty rough. So never quite bought into the hot start for him. But yeah, that's gone really poorly. All right, Waverwire fun with arbitrary endpoints here. Joe Adele stayed hot. hit his 13th home run last 15 games for him. He's hitting 333 with seven homers, 14 RBI, a 12-31 OPS. And Willie Castro, two for three with a triple and two RBI. Last 12 games for him. He's hitting 415. four homers, 11 run scored,

an OPS around 1,200. Who do you guys like more in a deeper five outfielder leagues? Joe Adele or Willie Castro, who also has a second, third, and shortstop. Yeah, I like Adele more because he can actually, he can actually be a plus in a category. I'm not sure what category Willie Castro is a plus then. Maybe runs.

Is he been batting high in the lineup? He's already a 28 on this. He's got 28 and 47 games. That's actually a pretty good pace. his RBI total is awful though 15 now after today No he's been he he hit fifth today But it looks like he's usually around like six or eighth

Three two years ago he was a legit standout and stolen bases Fourth in the American League with 33 But he's only got three this year He only had 14 and 158 games last year Like that seems gone so Which is so weird because they changed the rules And then he stopped for him He might have been dealing with some kind of lingering injury last year, if I'm remembering correctly.

But the fact that it hasn't been there this year seems to suggest that it's not coming back. So I think Castro is useful, certainly, because of that quadruple eligibility. That is, you know, sextuple eligibility if you include middle and corin field. But I just, that's the most. interesting thing about him, I think. The fact that he's like a decent hitter who can fill a spot anywhere for you, that

does have value in and of itself. It's just, he probably shouldn't be your plan A in any 12 team league at any of those positions. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll get into some other waiver wire options. The rest of Wednesday's action, we'll do that right after this.

Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Other waiver wire hitters, no more endpoints here. Lane Thomas, showing some signs of life since coming off the IL, 3 for 5 with his first home run here on Wednesday. He went 1 for 3 with a steal on Monday, 30% rostered. Does that number need to be higher? I feel like we need to see a lot more.

We need to see him play a lot more because this is, he's been back three games. They were all against left-handers. Even against the left-hander, one of those three, he didn't start. So if we can't even trust him to play regularly against left-handers, and we really need to see Lane. Thomas play regularly as right handers for for us to care. He's been pretty disastrous since getting to Cleveland.

Yeah. What about Carlos Santana also in Cleveland? He is quietly just done his thing this year. One for four with a grand slam. Eighth home run. He's hitting 251. 32 runs. 34 RBI.

738 OPS. Plate discipline is still solid. Everything under the hood though. Expects stats. Not so great. 32% rostered. Should that number be higher for Carlos. Santana. Is it out of character

the expected stats? Not really. Did we just lose Frank? We did just lose Frank. I don't know what to do. You don't? You should be used to this, but... To quote

Kylo Ren in the Force Awakens, I know what I have to do. I just don't know if I have the strength to do it. I've always seen Kylo Ren and you. I guess if we're still talking about Carlos Santana here, the expected stats may not be that impressive, but they never really are.

And he's kind of managed to remain viable almost to age 40 now. And the fact he's doing it again doesn't strike me as remotely surprising. Look, first base is deep enough with all the Michael Bushes and Jonathan Ronda's all of those guys emerging that I don't think Carlos Santana is anywhere close to much roster, but I'd prefer to use them to like a Nate Lowe at this point, I think. Do we have to talk about Abraham Toro? He went two for four on Wednesday with his fifth home run. He's hitting 330 with five homers at 928 OPS in 27 games,

just a 14% strikeout rate for Abraham Toro. Does he actually matter, Scott? I don't think so. This is not his first go-round. Good for him that he's managed to do this well through 27 games and give the Red Sox a reprieve at first base for now, but I don't think it's going to last long. Yeah, his career high OPS is 695.

Actually, 688 is the career high for Abraham Toro. I don't know. He has cut the strikeout rate to 14%. The quality of contact is pretty good, 293, but 293 expected batting average. But we're talking about 99 plate appearances. Guys can just get hot for 99 played appearances. I think that's probably what we're seeing with Abraham Toro. Max Muncie, the men, the men Max Muncie, not Max Muncie.

It's the worst Max Muncie. The one on the athletics is probably the less confusing way to say that. He's hit well since returning seven games. He's hitting 276 with three home runs, one steel, 860. 2 OPS. He's only 6% rostered. Is that too low? A little low. Yeah, I mean, because how many,

I would think there's close to like 10% AL only leagues, or at least AL only leagues and very deep leagues combined. Oh, yeah, Muncie needs to be rostered in all of those at this point. Probably a little bit more. Oh, my goodness. We're getting a little bit of Robo Scott here.

We don't need that. We don't need Chris flying. solo out of nowhere. It's fine now, right? There's no interruption on my end. It looks fine. Flying solo out of nowhere. That's that's kind of a fun image. Max Muncie, I don't think is that good, but he's shown power and speed and deep enough leagues, probably enough of that to matter. Yeah, that's exactly my thought. 10% is usually where we see the mono league only guys. And I think Max Muncie's probably that. And I think the same is probably true of Andrew McCutcheon, who went one for four with a six home run, three RBI on Wednesday against the Marlins.

He homered for the 241st time as a Pittsburgh pirate passing Roberto Clemente for third most on the team. He has remained a really productive hitter, but not as a full-time player. So again, 6% rostered, probably only. and L only. I got to say, when I, I did pick McCutcheon as one of my

10 sleeper hitters for this week. Expecting nothing. Expecting this is going to look foolish a week from now. But hey, it hasn't. So good for me,

I guess. Way to go. All right. Let's talk some waiver wire pitchers. Walker Bueller, turn in a quality start versus Tampa Bay. Seven innings,

six hits, three earned runs, one walk, seven strikeouts, 10 whiffs on 97 pitches for Walker Bueller. velocity was up a little bit. I really don't think there's anything here. Even after this start, he's 68% rostered.

That feels way too high for Walker Bueller for me. Yeah. If he could string a few of these together, I'd be open to him being, to him mattering. It seems like he recognizes he doesn't have the same stuff he used to pre-second Tommy John. So he's trying to turn himself into a Seth Lugo type picture. Yeah. But that's, of course, easier said than done.

He's had a few scattered starts like this one where, you know, I could see how this might work for Bueller, but there needs to be more consistency from me to really buy into it. David Festa started and had a quality start against the Rangers on Wednesday. Went six innings. It was only 86 pitches. So I don't know if that's like, hey, we're taking the leash off of him or if it was just he was efficient in a good matchup. He took advantage. Three hits, two run runs, two walks, only four strikeouts. But 17 whiffs on 86 pitches, 8 with the changeup, five with the slider, four on the four seamer.

That's the thing with David Festa. The four seamer and change, or the slider end change up last season showed some real signs of being very good swing and miss pitches. And that's going to be the key for him. I think there is upside with David Festa. He is a two-star pitcher next week and he's only 16% rostered, gets Milwaukee. and then at Cincinnati is not great for a guy who has had trouble with the long ball. That's my biggest concern with Festa, but I would say that sounds like a top 10 sleeper pitcher,

or at least a, yeah, top 10 sleeper pitcher to me. Am I coming off this start with all the whiffs he got? I would say so. No, I think Festa, I think 16% is too low. It may be backwards, the roster rate, what it should be for Dave's. David Festa. It may deserve to be 61%, especially since with Zebby Matthews down for the count. And Pablo Lopez out for, what, 60 weeks? Yeah. Sure. David Festa has more job security than ever.

Yeah. And I just, I think they kind of have to let these guys go deeper at some point, right? Like, especially with no Pablo Lopez. Like, that's the one guy you could count on to go six innings. And now they can't. Like, that's going to really tax. the pullpin if they keep pulling these guys after five innings. So Chris, Chris was enjoying life without you too much, Frankie. Yeah, it was not. I was not stressed at all. I saw, you know,

a little opportunity there. Chris was like, nope. You left us. I have no idea what happened. I just got a bit from Robo Frank. I don't. It was the perfect thing about it though is like as soon as you dropped we got Robo Scott. Like immediately.

Wow. Look at that. Yeah, it was perfect. Whatever just Never happened before. I tried a bunch of other stuff, and the internet was working fine, so I have no idea. It was a surge so strong. It affected us both.

All right, so you guys left off here on David Festa. Did you talk about any of these other names here? No, we left on David Festa. All right, well, Eduardo Rodriguez, a quality start against the Mariners,

and then J.P. Sears, a little bounce back out in here. Looks like J.P. Sears might be a two-star pitcher next week against the Astros and Guardians. Eduardo Rodriguez. The overall numbers look terrible. Underlying stuff looks a lot better. I don't know if you guys are intrigued.

What do you think, Erod or J.P. Sears? I'm kind of shocked that Eduardo Rodriguez's roster rate is lower than J.P. Sears. I know Rodriguez has been worse, but it's not like Sears has been good. He's a 508 ERA, and he's a low strikeout pitcher. He's a pitch to contact pitcher in what might be one of the worst ballparks in baseball to pitch in. I really don't have very much interest in J.P. Sears at all, even after a very good start here. So I'm not saying I like Eduardo Rodriguez a lot, but I think there's more interesting going on with him than with J.P. Sears as like a low fours ERA kind of guy. Gofer Festo over both.

Agreed, 100%. All right. Next group here. Billy Fulter continues to pitch well. I'm not exactly sure how, but he is doing it against the Marlins, five and a third. one run, three strikeouts. Last eight starts, 161, ERA, 0.96 whip for Bailey Falzer. Logan Allen turned in a quality start against the Reds, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts for him, just his second quality start of the season.

Ben Casperius is getting stretched out as a starter for the Dodgers, four innings, one run, only two strikeouts here, but everything else under the hood. The skills look really, really interesting here for Ben Casperius. And Ryan Gusto turned in. the first quality start of his career up against the White Sox, six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. Any intrigue in a Ryan Gusto, Ben Casperius, Logan Allen, or Bailey Falter? So I do think it's worth drawing a distinction between we don't know how Bailey Falter is finding success. And we do not think Bailey Falter will continue to succeed in this way moving forward because those are very different things.

Bailey Fultry is succeeding because he is limiting hard contact to a really, really impressive degree. His expected Wobon contact allowed is 326. That is one of the best marks in baseball. That's not sustainable for him. His career mark is 372. That's basically league average. Last year, it was 374. He's a significantly below average strikeout pitcher.

his control is about average Bailey Falter we got a pretty decent sample size here with Bailey Falter and he's a career 440 ERA I guess we can say oh just ride the hot hand the problem is like who are we talking about last week

there was there was some one that we were doing the ride the hot hand thing for and then they got bombed and their ERA jumped like a run and a half in one start I can't remember who it is, but that's the risk that I think you're running with Bailey Falter. Is that like the next time out could very easily be seven runs and three innings and it

totally ruins whatever you've gotten out of him by riding the hot hand. Ryan Yarbrough, that was the guy. Thank you to Preservius in chat. And I think, I think Yarbrough, there's more to like there than Falter. Absolutely. Not that he's great. But yeah, it's funny because the expected ERA for Falter is actually pretty good. it basically matches as ERA,

but all the other ERA estimators like the Sierra is five, the X-FIP is pretty close to five. And we don't talk about those numbers as much as we used to, but just as kind of a rough guideline, I would say of the ERA estimators, XERA is the best at explaining what's already happened, but I'd still trust those others more in a predictive sense. And the research that I've done backs that up.

that the FIP actually somehow still does a really good job of predicting future performance, even though it just assumes the pitchers have no control over the quality of contact they allow. So yeah, I have very little interest in Bailey Fulter. I've got a decent amount of interest in Ben Casparius, though. I do think that I think we can kind of write Ryan Gusso and Logan T. Allen. I don't have much interest in either of them at all. but Casperius, I don't, I think you can make a mistake in looking at a bulk reliever dominating and saying, ah, that's what they're going to do as a starter because it's just

completely different thing. You're the first guy that they face in a game rather than being a change of pace guy. You've got to face the lineup multiple times. It's something Ben Casparius has very rarely done this season. So I do think we should take what he's done so far with a grain of salt. But he's been really, really good. And now the Dodgers have confirmed he's going to be in their rotation moving forward. Who knows how long that lasts?

I think it might only last as long as he's good. And maybe he won't be all that good. But given how good he's been this season, 286 ERA, strikeout rate 9.4 per 9, 1.8 walks per 9. I think we have to take Ben Casperius at least somewhat seriously. Agree. All right. I did want to talk about Byron Bucksen, but we're up against it here. So I'm going to say that for tomorrow.

I think there's a pretty good sell high case here for Byron Bucks. And although he is having a truly awesome season right now, want to talk about some pitchers who came to a screeching halt here on Wednesday. Chris Bubich had one of his rough outings. He hasn't had many of this season. But two have come against the Yankees, four and a third, five runs allowed, four walks, three strikeouts. Again, he's only had three bad starts.

Two of them came against the Yankees. So perhaps they just see him well. It's a tough matchup for him. Maybe he's tipping his pitches in a way. only figured out. I don't know, the walks, the walks probably had more to do with his struggles in this one. Yeah. Nick Lodolo got crushed at the Guardians three and a third, six runs, six strikeouts. Under the hood, I actually thought it was pretty good start. 14 whiffs didn't allow much hard contact. Seems kind of unlucky here for Lodolo. Matthew Libertor has kind of struggled recently,

five innings, five runs, three of those earned, four strikeouts to one walk, has 14 earned runs over 14 innings in his last three outings, down to 76% rostered. That kind of surprised me. People are dropping Matthew Libertor. And Ben Brown, after two strong starts in a row, he ran into a brick wall at the Phillies, five and two-thirds, six runs, three walks, five strikeouts.

Still got whiffs here. Underlying numbers still look really good. Looks like he lines up for two starts next week. Where are you guys at on these names? Ben Brown, you know, would you trust him for two starts? Are you dropping Liberto? What do you think? Yeah, it doesn't surprise me.

Libertor is being dropped. I mean, his ERA is almost four now. He doesn't have a very good strikeout rate. It hasn't all year. It's, it's, the reason he's succeeded is because his control has been like best in the league. But since he doesn't have a track record of that, when you have, when you're an outlier at something, like a total outlier, one of the one of the, one of the, on the extreme ends of the rankings at something. and you don't have an established track record of that. I'm going to bet against you sustaining that.

It worked for Ranger Suarez last year. And I think it's going to play out for Matthew Libertor as well. Now, it's interesting. It's not like his struggles have coincided with a big increase in walks. But I don't think it's surprising at all that he's kind of coming back down to Earth. If you want to take advantage of the relief of your eligibility, I had to head points league, hold on to him there, because you squint and hope for the best

from those kinds of pictures in that form. I understand. And you're losing me again. I'm trying to work through. I'm like, can we stick through it? Can we stick with it? I don't know. I can read it all over your faces when it happens.

Yeah, that's my take on Lippertour. Not a surprise that he's being dropped. I think outside of head-to-head points leagues. Not that you must do it, but you can justify it. You can't. I want to talk. about Ben Brown a little bit because he kind of I'll say he went into like panic mode in this start because this is the first time I think all season that he's throwing the knuckle curve more

than the four seamer and that strikes me as like a I got no answers I'm just going to spam my best pitch kind of move and the problem is that's going to be a that's going to be a tough thing to do and throw strikes his velocity was up um But his four seamer, like we talked about this this weekend when he was coming off a very good start where the four seamer, he throws it hard, but it gets hit really hard when he doesn't miss bats with it. And then he threw eight changeups today, which we talked about in the last start. I think one of the eight was in the strike zone and he didn't generate a single whiff or sorry, a single swing with it. It was a totally non-competitive pitch for him. That's going to be hard.

Like if that can become a consistent third pitch for him, there's real upside here. But otherwise, I think it's going to be a real struggle. I think it's going to be up and down for Ben Brown. I'm I still think he's super talented. I still think that knuckle curve is legitimately one of the best pitches in baseball, perhaps. But is he someone you should feel comfortable using? Certainly not.

Now, he is a two-star pitcher next week and he's 47% rostered. So might be in that two. star pitcher or sleeper pitcher discussion. I don't want a good chance. I mean, we didn't feel great about him against the Phillies, but his previous two starts were awesome. So, yeah, I like a lot about Ben Brown, but it's, it's, he's going to be kind of a charrazzard,

at least for the time being, I think, if I can, if I can make that analogy again, which means just as likely to, to burn you as to score big for you. All right, let's get into some quick leftovers here. We already spoke about Lazzardo. So Zach Eflin, a quality start against the tiger, six and two thirds, one run, five strikeouts.

That's three quality starts in a row for him. And Clark Schmidt, a great outing at the Royals, six shutout with seven strikeouts. In this one, he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in nine of ten starts this season, has seven plus strikeouts in three of his last four. Anything to add on Clark Schmidt or Zach Eflin? I don't know why I just can't get all the way there with Clark Schmidt. He has like a 13% swinging strike right now, which is really good. It's the command.

The command is bad. Yeah, I guess that's it. It has so many breaking pitches that it's hard for him to throw strikes and put. It hasn't really hurt him, but I just, I don't, even when he does well, I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I don't feel like there's enough upside to treat him like more than a streaming option. He doesn't go the full six innings all that often. But he has a 278 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 45 innings over his past eight starts. Now, you start to do the math and it's under six innings per start.

It's like five and a half endings per start. And 3.8 walks per nine in that stretch. Like that's probably just the reality of Clark Schmidt. I think Frankie put it well. He basically never throws his four seam or sinker. I think it was like 15% combined today. his cutter rate is way up. I think that's a good idea.

I just, I think there's an inherent limitation to Clark Schmidt that makes it hard to buy in fully. But he's against the Angels and Orioles in a two-star week next week. He's only 78% rostered. Let's fire him up that next week at least. Yeah, I didn't put him in waiver wire

just because 70% and it's pretty high there. But he could be out there on some shallower league. So with those two matchups, yeah, I'd feel pretty good about that. that. Hitting leftovers from Wednesday, Trey Turner continues to play well, two for three with the walk and his 19th stolen base. He is on pace for 44 steals this season,

which would be his most since 2017. That's what he was doing last year before the hamstring injury. Yep. Big game for Kyle Schwabre, one for three with a sock and a shoe, his 21st home run and fifth steel. Donald Ducunya continues to hit for power since returning, hit his sixth home run in just 18 games.

A. Eugenio Suarez had a big game three for four with a grand, slam, his 19 home run. Jordan Westberg is back with a vengeance. Has homered in back-to-back games since coming off the IL. Goodman stayed hot, three for five with two doubles and his 11th home run. Nice to see in Corr's Field because he's actually been better on the road than at home this season, which is pretty weird. And Aaron Judge will not stop.

One for four with a sock and a shoe, his 25th homer, his sixth steal of the season. call to the bullpen here for the pirates David Bednar struck out two for his ninth save for the Blue Jays Jeff Hoffman was unavailable. Jareel Rodriguez picked up his first save for the debacks. Shelby Miller got the ninth inning with a three-run lead and he struck out two for his seventh save. Shelby Miller only 33% rostered. So if you need saves, definitely.

There's no one else. There's no one else in that bullpen who can do the job. Maybe a month from now, AJ Puck will be available. but it's it's Miller or bust and look Miller's got like a 160 ERA on the year I know he was kind of shaky filling in for Justin Martinez last time but he might just do a good job yeah peripherals aren't great but I clearly think he's the guy for the angels Kenley Jansen was unavailable so Chris's boy reedetmers got the ninth inning with a one run lead and picked up his second save for the Dodgers Tanner Scott pitched in the eighth inning with a two run lead facing the heart of the Padres lineup there were two lefties in there he struck out one picked up the hold, and Alex Vessia got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He struck out the side for his third save. For the Red Sox, a roll of his Chathampton picked up his 12th save, and for the Yankees, Devin Williams got the final two outs for his eighth save of the season.

To stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have Will Warren at the Royals, Jacob Miziarowski in his debut against the Cardinals, Sorokas at the Mets, Andrew Heaney at the Cubs. Don't love a lot of these options. Will Warren at KC might be my favorite. He's been really bad his last like three starts though, right? Yeah. So that's a little concerning.

He's been very up and down. One against the Dodgers. That's true, yeah. Home against the Red Sox. And then one in course field. It was like four innings, two runs. Yeah. We're going to go.

Fortune favors the bold here with Jacob Mizorowski, a Charzarist, start. there ever was one. Fire it up. Fire it up. I don't really want to, but if you're saying, I have to start two from this group,

he would be number two probably. I am very intrigued, going to watch Jacob as you're asking for sure. I'm definitely going to watch Mike Soroka because I'm going to the game. I'm not saying I expect it to go well for him. But the new changeup, the way he threw it in the previous,

start against lefties. I'm very intrigued to see how this goes for Mike Soroka, because I think there could be, uh, I think we could be talking about him as a, as a big waiver wire priority if he pitches well. And the change up especially looks good tomorrow. So not streaming him, he falls under the to not stream, but, uh, I'm, I'm intrigued. And then on Friday, we have Kate Horton up against the pirates, Edward Cabrera at the Nationals. Nick Martinez at the Tigers, Bryce Elder gets the Rockies in Atlanta, Adrian Houser at the Rangers,

Severino at the Royals, and that's about it. More interesting options here. Yeah, I think there's four interesting options here, maybe five. What are they? Kate Horton,

Edward Cabrera, Nick Martinez, Bryce Elder and Adrian Houser, probably in roughly that order. I'd put Severino ahead of Houser, so maybe there's six. Maybe. I think I would put Elder at the top of the list.

I think so too. But look, it's coming off his best start ever. The Rockies on the road. Yeah. First team out of course, field like that it sets up so well. It lines up for Bryce Elder to give up six runs and four ratings. Exactly right. That is exactly right.

Yeah. No, I think this is actually a pretty good streaming group. No sure things, but some interesting combinations of talent and matchup. And then Nick Martinez, don't love the matchup, but he's pretty good. Yeah.

I think I would go Elder Horton and probably Cabrera. He's pitching well right now. Yeah. All right. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.