Fantasy Baseball Today - Max Meyer Promoted, Reid Detmers Hype & Royals Prospects (7/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 15, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Max Meyer will make his debut this weekend (1:05)! ... Braxton Garrett and Reid Detmers looked great on Thursday (7:15). ... How do we rank all of these waiver wire pitchers (12:45)? ... A bunch of Royals prospects were promoted (12:45). Will any stick around? ... Should Gavin Lux and Matt Carpenter be rostered in more leagues (23:40)? ... News and notes (32:52): Jacob deGrom made another rehab start. ... Should you look to buy-low on Jonathan India (41:30)? ... Should you look to cash out on Triston McKenzie and Nestor Cortes (43:15)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (47:25). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talk about Friday and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today. On July 15th, Frank Stamphle joined by Chris Towers. We've got a show for you today. Marlon's top prospect, Max Meyer, will make his debut this weekend. A whole bunch of Royals prospects got called up in Toronto. Will they stick around? I'm not so sure. Fun waiver wire pitchers, a by-low hitter, and much more.

But, of course, we will start with Max Meyer. Not, oh my goodness gracious, we'll have to push that off for just a little bit. I mean, Chris, even before we talk about. about Meyer. How are you feeling about as a Marlins fan? Are you excited for this call? I mean, they just split a home series with the Pirates. So how could you not be excited about the future of this team? I mean, look, I'm very excited to watch Max Meyer play. Uh, I think the Marlins are still not going to be a very good team, but maybe he can inject some life and, you know, they're going to need great pitching to have any chance to win games moving forward,

which has been the case pretty much all season. So very excited to see what Max Meyer can do. he is arguably the team's top prospect, certainly arguably the team's top pitching prospect. And, you know, when he hasn't been hurt this season, there have been some pretty good signs. You know, I think the injury, you know, he was dealing with, I think it was some elbow soreness. It was a little concerning. But, you know, he's come back and has looked pretty good in a small sample size, 25 strikeouts over five starts. So yeah, I think there's a lot to like. He's got high 90s heat, good breaking ball, developing change-up, which is the Marlins thing.

They all have this hard change-up. So I'm pretty excited, pretty excited to see what he can do. As you should be, one of the, I would say top five pitching prospects and all of baseball, a top 50 prospect overall on the list that I was looking at earlier. And 13 starts in the minors this season, a 3.6. ERA, 0.97 whip, 69 strikeouts, over 61 innings pitched. You mentioned the fastball and the slider, Chris. And look, even if he doesn't have the change up now, you're right.

I mean, the Marlins have done a great job helping their pitchers develop these changeups. So whether it's Pablo Lopez or Trevor Rogers, they've done a really good job. So maybe once he gets to the majors and has, you know, the pitching coaches around him, and they can kind of help that change up take the next step for him. He gets good ground balls, great venue to pitch in Miami. He's 38% rostered, Chris. I mean, this might be the last biggest pitching prospect that gets called up this season. I don't know if he'll stick around, obviously, that will be determined by how well he pitches.

But is he a must add in all leagues where available? And where do you foresee moving him up to in your pitcher rankings? I would guess that he'll probably get moved up into like the 60-ish range, which is kind of where I think. think a, I mean, probably several tiers end around there. You know, we refer to this blob, and I think that's probably like, you've got, I've got Andrew Heaney and Tyler McGill in that range. I've got Merrill Kelly, who is a different type of pitcher, but Tyler Anderson. So like, a mixture of guys with upside and guys who are kind of boring. And I think, you know, he fits around there. Like, you know, right around where Hunter Green is, I think.

makes sense. So yeah, I'm, I'm pretty, you know, pretty pumped to see what he can do. Looking at baseball prospectuses mid-season update, their top 50, he's 14 for them overall. Actually, the second Marlins pitcher ranked, they really like Yuri Perez, who's a 19-year-old at AA, which is pretty impressive. But Max Myers, the guy who's getting the call. And, you know, he's like a six-foot guy who's. throws 100 miles an hour you love to watch that yeah would you say must add in in all formats regardless

of league size or probably not like a 10 team points league but you know i i i went out and the one league i have that has open free agency i went and picked him up and dropped uh i think i added tanner rainy to the i i just dropped tanner rainy because i had no i l spots left and you know tanner rini's probably done for the season so yeah i'm pretty pretty close to calling him a must add Somebody on Twitter asked me if I would drop Aaron Ashby for Max Meyer. And I kind of hesitated, but I said I would stick with Ashby. What do you think about something like that? I think that's the right range, the right idea.

You know, I am moving Meyer higher than Ashby, so I'm okay with it. All right. I'm going to go with Ashby. Chris is going to go with Max Meyer because he's a homer, obviously. Obviously. Fab, Chris. Look, there's going to be a bunch of Fab going this weekend, Sunday, and people are going to have to determine how much money to spend on Max Meyer.

And everyone's different this time of year. You know, I have leagues where I have $65 left out of $1,000 budget. So I won't be able to bid that much on Max Meyer. But let's say you have, you know, 15 to 20 percent of your budget left. Are you willing to give up like half of that to get Max Meyer? I think that's what I was thinking about, about $100 out of a thousand is probably the right range. So, you know, if you're only sitting on that, you're only sitting on. a pile of 70. I wouldn't throw $70 out there, although, you know, I know Scott mentioned in one of,

one of the recent podcasts earlier this week, like, I can't remember, was it Estuary Ruiz, who he blew out his remaining fab for because he was in a league with zero dollar ads? He kind of hinted at who he was going to pick up, but I don't think he told us who it was. Yeah. So like, we're at that time of the year where, you know, there's, and there's little enough competition on fab most weeks that you can you know get away with not having much left if you really think max meyer's going to be an impact player i think it's questionable enough you know given the recent injury history the fact that the marlins aren't going to probably get many wins that he's not like a you know completely blow out your fab budget guy but um you know

a hundred dollars makes sense yeah or you know if you if you play with um if you you start with $100, something like 10% of your fab budget that you started with, obviously. All right, well, let's get into, oh, my goodness gracious players from Thursday. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Chris, where would you like to go? Well, sticking with the Homer theme, let's just stick with a Marlins pitcher. This was actually this Marlins Pirates series. You know, we joked about it during the streamer segment, if you haven't gotten to the end of the episodes this week.

We joked about just pick those guys and the streamers for that series. So everybody who started except for Pablo Lopez, basically. So that's including like Trevor Rogers, who's like 60% rostered. Those players combined for like a 1-70 ERA over 40 innings. Like if you had actually just streamed every pitcher in the Marlins Pirates series, you would have had an amazing week because Braxton Garrett went six shut out innings, allowing two hits, two walks, 11 strikeouts against the pirates. On the other side of the game, Zach Thompson allowed one earn run in six and two-thirds

innings. Only two strikeouts in that one. But yeah, Braxton Garrett pitching pretty well of late for the Marlins. And he's someone who at one time had some prospect pedigree. I think he was a first round pick who just kind of got derailed by injuries. He's 24 years old. He doesn't throw hard. He's a lefty. So I don't.

I think the outcome in this start was mostly a pirates thing. You know, I'm not thinking that Braxton Garrett, who had a 19% strikeout rate coming into this start, is going to be a world beater moving forward. But this is three starts in a row with three earned runs or fewer. One of them was almost three quality starts in a row, but he fell one out short in his most recent start. So, yeah, I don't think he's great.

you know, I think in your 12 team roto leagues, he's, he's probably pretty fringy, but Brex and Garrett has definitely entered the streaming and to start range for starting pitchers. Yes. And the slider, I think he got 11 swings and misses with it today. Yep. It has a 35% whiff rate coming into this game. So, you know, that does seem to be a pretty good pitch for him. I think the problem is, you know, he's got well below average velocity.

Fastballs aren't really all that good, although the sinker got nine whiffs today. I would imagine a bunch of those were O'Neill Cruz who struck out three times. But yeah, I think Braxton Garrett is firmly in the like 90-ish range at starting pitcher now. All right. And yeah, I was going to mention the slider. He's throwing it more this season. 34%. He used it just 21% last year. And it has been a pretty good pitch for him. Overall, he's got a 3.70 ERA, 46% percent. ground ball rate nearly a strikeout per inning and 11.3% swinging strike rate entering the start. So that will only go up after racking up 23 swinging strikes against the Pittsburgh Pirates in this

start. I do agree, you know, look, if he's out there in 15 team leagues, take a shot, let's see where it goes. Anything shallower, you know, depends how desperate you are for pitching. But there were quite a few pitchers who emerged here on Thursday. So we'll compare all of them in just a little bit. The one that I would like to talk about is Reed Detmer's. And I'm getting pretty excited about Reed Detmer's. He was up against the Astros. Two quality starts since returning to the rotation. He goes six innings, two runs, six strikeouts to three walks,

only 10 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, but the Astros are a team that does not swing and miss all that much. He used that hard slider again, 28% of the time. He used it much more in his previous start, over 40% in that one. But the velocity on it is up, and it's been pretty effective for him. So I am buying this pitcher,

mix change. You know, he doesn't throw all that hard, like 93, 94, but as a lefty, that's pretty good. 34% rostered. Chris, how excited are you about Reed Detmer's? Do you like him more than Braxton Garrett? Yes, I like Reed Demers a lot more than Braxton Garrett. Um, you know, better prospect pedigree. I think the stuff is better. So I'm, I'm much more excited about Reed Demers than Braxton Garrett. What we've seen so far from Braxton Garrett, from Reed, Demers and the majors, excuse me, is a pretty bad fastball. You know, the four seamer gave up a 512 expected woba last season. It's down to 402 this season, which is still pretty bad, although it's in like the manageable range for fastballs.

You know, fastballs often get hit harder than other pitches. So, you know, I think the key is going to be the slider if that can be an out pitch for him. And, you know, the curveball has been pretty solid as well. I think that's going to be the key. So, you know, I wish he was getting more swings and misses with the curveball. It was 25% entering today. It was only going to go down because he had zero swings and misses with the curveball. So, you know, I think he's still a work in progress.

But what we've seen in the past couple of starts from Redembers now is is very promising. Doing it twice against Houston, especially is, you know, that's one of the best lines in baseball. I obviously know Yordon Alvarez. that makes it a little tougher to, you know, tougher to give him full credit for because the bottom half of this lineup is pretty stinky, but, you know, he got through the top half or the top, you know, five-ninths or however you want to slice it up. So, yeah, I definitely excited about Reid Detmer's and what we've seen from him. All right, so now let's take all these names and kind of rank them out here, Chris,

because Max Meyer, widely available, Reed Detmer's widely available. Braxton Garrett, I think he's probably in a tier below these guys. But other pitchers have emerged recently, too. Like Nick Ladolo is still less than 60% rostered, and I think there's a lot to be excited about there. David Peterson, I like what we've seen. He has a tremendous slider, but I don't know if he's going to remain in the rotation

once Jacob deGrom returns. So a lot of lefties. Yeah, let's go with these four names. Meyer, Detmerz, Lodolo, Peterson. How are you ranking those four? So I would say probably Meyer, Lodolo, Detmer, Peters, I think that's the right answer.

Yeah. And that's how I would go. That's what I would go with. And it's not even like, I definitely think Max Meyer's better than Nick La Dolo. I certainly think he can be and I, as a Marlins fan, hope so. But it's more just if you don't pick up Max Meyer right now, you're probably not going to pick up Max Meyer. Yeah, it's one of those situations. And the situation is just better.

Not that the Marlins are much better than the Reds, but just the venue alone makes... Better home park. Yeah. Max Meyer, much more. more intriguing to me. We do have a couple of other pitchers here that pitched well on Thursday. Drew Raspison turned in his first quality start since returning from the IL. He was up against the Boston Red Sox.

Six innings, three runs, five strikeouts. He had 18 swinging strikes on 89 pitches. Eight of those on the fastball, eight of them on the cutter. And he's been solid this year. 3.22 ERA, 3.65 X-FIP. And he's 69% rostered. So it could be out there in some shallower leagues. and he's SPARP eligible.

So, especially in points leagues, I think there's a lot to like with Raspuson. Johnny Quato, I don't think any of us really trust it, but he now has a quality start in 9 of 11 starts this season. So it's something. He went six innings, one run, five strikeouts, at the Minnesota Twins, which is a pretty damn good lineup. So the ERA is 2.80.

The ex-fip is up over four, so. I mean, look, the thing with Quito, and I guess you wanted to continue, but I'll just cut in here. That's fine. Um, he always, he was always, even at his peak, even when he was throwing hard, he was always crafty. You know, Johnny Quedo always through like basically every pitch within like an eight mile per hour band. It was like 85 to 92 miles per hour or something.

And all of his pitches kind of have similar movement. And he, you know, throws off hitters timings. And, and he was always someone who outperformed his expected stats, um, or his peripherals, I guess. 343 ERA for his career 386 FIPP 3993 X-FIP So you know when you look at it and you say Well he's got a 397 FIP Johnny Quato probably still has some of that

Veteran Gile left So you know it's not unreasonable to think that He could be a mid 3 ZRA guy moving forward But you know Midling strikeouts I don't think it's a particularly exciting profile Yeah he's more of a streamer than anything I would say. That is Johnny Quedo.

But these two names, Chris, Rasmussen and Quedo, I don't, I wouldn't take either over Meyer. I wouldn't, I don't think I would take them over Detmer's or Lodolo, but I might take Rasmussen over Peterson. That one's close. Yeah, I think that's fair. And for what it's worth, if I had to drop Rasmussen or Quedo to add Meyer, I would do that. I agree. You know, there's probably a little less certainty with Meyer,

and maybe the spark thing for Rasmussen makes it. hard if you're in a points league and you're really relying on him in that spark spot, but you're not going to get a ton of quality starts out of him either way. And that's kind of the differentiator in a points league. So I think I'd be okay dropping either of those guys. All right. We already talked about Braxton Garrett in deeper leagues. How about Zach Thompson on the other side of that game? You mentioned what he did, Chris. And then Carter Crawford, who pitches for the Red Sox, he turned in a quality start at the raise, six headings, three runs, six strikeouts to zero walks. He did have 13 swinging strikes on 91 pitches.

His ERA is in the mid-fors, but he gets a good amount of strikeouts, and the underlying numbers look kind of good for Cutter Crawford. Is there anything there with either him or Zach Thompson in deeper leagues? Yeah, I mean, Cutter Crawford, Zach Thompson, no, this was a Marlins thing. Like I said, the Pirates pitchers pretty much all universally pitched well in this one. So that tells the Marlins offense right now. Crawford's interesting because he's kind of got a a bit of like kitchen sink appeal to him

the way he throws. He's got a four seamer, a cutter, a curveball, a change up, and a slider. And they've all got like decent whiff rates. And so, you know, his slider has actually been his best whiff rate pitch so far, but, you know, he doesn't throw it all that often and never to lefties. So, you know,

I think there's something there. You know, he's not disinterested. You know, 28% strikeout rate is really good. So, yeah, I think Crawford is worth looking at. I don't know how long he's going to, you know, remain in the rotation, given that Nathan Avaldi very well may be back by the end of the, by the time we get back from the All-Star break. So, you know, don't know how much of a priority he is to add.

So according to Rostor Resource right now, they only have three players in their rotation, three pitchers, rather. I think that Nathan Avaldi is actually starting this weekend and Michael Waka's still hurt. Josh Winkowski just went on the COVID-I-L and then they have Rich Hill and James Paxon. I don't know, I think he might stick around for a little bit. So in deeper leagues, 15-teamers,

I'd take a shot on Cutter Crawford. I do like Brax and Garrett a little bit more. Do you agree? I think so, yeah. Yeah, all right, cool. The Royals were without 10 players, as we mentioned on yesterday's podcast, in Toronto, but they called up a bunch of their

prospects. I don't know if these prospects will stick around, but it's exciting nonetheless, and let's talk about them. First up, we have Nick Prado and pitcher Anhelle Serpa. Prado in the minors this year was hitting only 240. I know he was coming around recently. 17 homers, eight steals in 858 OPS. He went 0.4 3 with three strikeouts in his debut. You know, going up against Kevin Gosman, your first start, not really the most optimal outcome, but it is what it is. And then left-handed pitcher, on hell, SERPA. That's actually spelled Z-E-R-P-A, but I listen to the broadcast, and they said Serpa, so I'm going with it. In the minors this season, not great. 4-3-6-E-R-A, 1-4-2-W-P.

Over a strikeout per inning gets a lot of ground balls. So he's kind of one of those crafty lefties, maybe in like a Ranger Suarez kind of mold. He was pretty good at the Blue Jays. Five innings, one run, two strikeouts. He had a 61% ground ball rate in this start. Chris, do you have any interest or, you know, scouting? What are you doing with these names, if anything? Nick Prado and Anhele Serpa. My assumption is that they're just getting called up because the Royals had to put 10 guys on the restricted list

when they went to Toronto and they'll just be up for three games. Maybe some of them can do something and open their eyes. But Prado, it's an interesting profile because he's an athletic first baseman. He's got eight stolen bases. So he's kind of got like an interesting secondary skill set that makes him, you know, a little more appealing in prospect folks' eyes.

And he was actually the third-ranked prospect in that organization, according to Fangraphs, ahead of someone like Vinny Pasquantino who is kind of the opposite, you know? He's the, you know, Pasquantino is the guy who brings nothing to the table but his bat, but his bat seems more projectable than Prado. But Prado's got big power, a lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks. I don't think he's going to stick around. You know, he was striking out 35% of the time at AAA, I think 35, 31% of the time.

So, yeah, I don't think he's going to stick around in Zerpa. I think is probably just an organizational filler guy who could maybe be a back of the rotation starter. So I don't have much interest in him. How about this comp, Chris? Nick Prado, Joey Gallo at first base. Huh? Huh? Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know if, you know. I don't know if he has a same. I don't know if he has a same pop as Joey Gallo, you know, maybe not. I mean, that's the, the Votto is not a one-of-one player, but there aren't a lot of players who have been, I don't think anybody's really ever been as extreme as he is in terms of the home runs and strikeouts. So I would say, you know, that, that would be one lofty and just too hard to get to. But, you know, that's the profile. Fair enough.

A few others to watch that got called up prospects in the. Royals organization, Michael Massey and Nate Eaton. So Massey and the miners this season was hitting 317 with 15 homers, 12 steals, and a 908 OPS. Nate Eaton, 301 batting average, 13 homers, 19 steals in 858 OPS. You know, Chris, not for nothing. The Royals have some pretty interesting guys that are performing well in the minors. Again, I don't know if these guys are going to stick around, but I think that they could be up later in the season. So just names to remember, throw on the scout team, because my guess is the royals are probably just going to tear it down and trade like Ben and Tendee and Michael Taylor and I don't know,

Nikki Lopez if they can get anything for them and and then these players are going to be up. So do you have any takes on Massey or Eaton? No, I mean, they're both putting up decent numbers in the minors. I don't think the, I don't think either of them is is the kind of guy who the scouts love their tools. Although it is interesting. I'm looking at Nate Eaton's fan grafts right up and they give him an 80 arm.

which is top of the grade. Like, they think he has one of the best arms in baseball and say that he should probably try pitching. Move over O'Neill Cruz. That tells you, that tells you how they feel about his offensive profile. Yeah,

I guess so. I mean, again, he's performing pretty well in the minuses. He's somewhat interesting, yeah. I mean, 13 home runs,

19 steals in the high minors, like he's older, 25, but it's not out of the question that he could come up and be a minor power speed guy. But I Again, I would expect

all of these guys get sent down once the All-Star breaks over. All right, fair enough. Let's see what they do this weekend. That's Prado, Anheelserpa. He's not going to pitch again. And then Massey, Eaton. And of course, we're watching

Vinnie Pasquantino because he's the Italian breakfast. Why not? But he... Awesome starts of the week. Hasn't really done anything since. So it would be nice to see a little bit more action this weekend.

Waiverwire hitters, do any of these matter? Gavin Lux, we've talked about him a little bit here and there recently. He's still available in some shallower leagues. Should that change? He went one for three with his fourth home run. I looked at the splits this year because he struggled mightily with left-handed pitching basically his entire career.

He's batting 283 just with nothing else. No pop. The OPS is still, I think it's like sub-700, but some good signs. At least, you know, he's getting a few hits here. And since the start of June, 37 games, Gavin Lux is hitting 3.42, three homers, two steals, making contact, 18% strikeout rate. Exit velocity is still kind of middling right now, but he's doing some things, Chris. So what do you think about 65% roster? Does that need to be higher?

I think it's fine. I think in a different organization, Gavin Lux might be a much more valuable fantasy option. And that's not necessarily just because, like, you know, the Dodgers, and you don't necessarily always play every day. he mostly does. I think the biggest issue is he could be a much bigger stolen base threat than he is. He's 91st percentile in sprint speed. And I could see him being a 20 steel guy with his contact profile and the way he gets on base. I think he could be a very valuable player. But the way the Dodgers use him, the way the Dodgers let him play, I don't think the fantasy upside is too high. Like I would imagine he's much more highly rostered than Nico Horner at this point. And I don't think there's much. sense in that because they're both sort of empty batting average guys but Nico Horner looks like a much better bet for batting average actually he's got a

306 expected batting average and he's got eight steals and he's playing you know more regularly I mean I think they're both pretty much everyday player so I don't know if that's a fair critique of Gavin Lux but yeah I think that's that kind of sums up where I'm at on on Lux's I think he's pretty pretty middling for fantasy Nico Horner, 47% rostered, so a little bit more widely up. Yeah, I would rather have Horner. All right. How about Cincinnati Reds?

Does that sound like a good location for Gavin Lux? I feel like that could work out. Sure. That would be great. Yeah, part of the Luis Castillo trade, let's make that happen. I would love to see that. I think Gavin Lux would be excellent in Cincinnati. Based on what you just said, you know, the vibes that I'm kind of getting is if,

and this sounds like I'm selling him short, but I think a metta Rosario is a pretty good player. I think like if Gavin Lux played every day, he can be a close to 300 hitter, you know, maybe 10 to 15 home runs, 20 seals. And that's a lot like a matter, Rosario. But, you know, Rosario is a pretty good ballplayer too. So, uh, I, you know, alas, we have to wait and see what happens with Gavin Lux. Matt Carpenter went one for four with a walk and hit his 11th home run. He is 31% rostered.

Does this matter, Chris? I don't think so because he's not, he's still just not playing every single day. if he did, you know, I think it would be different because I do think there's something there. I mean, there's obviously something there. His new very, very pull-heavy swing is very valuable at Yankee Stadium. He's hitting the ball hard. I just, are they ever going to give him the opportunity to play every day? That's the thing I don't know. Yeah, it's a fair critique. I picked him up in a few 15 team leagues this week. And that makes sense. When I saw he wasn't in the lineup on Tuesday, even against the right-handed pitcher, I didn't start him.

So I wound up missing out on this home run, but they faced a lefty on Wednesday. So I assumed he wasn't going to start in that game. I actually think he did start in that game. So that's what makes it so weird. The playing time is kind of unpredictable right now. And I don't know if he's going to play every day. Like, you know, he's older, you know, maybe less.

And it just seems like the Yankees are very primed for a trade. Yeah. And so whatever opportunity there might be to play every day, it's probably not going to happen if they do make a trade. I think if you play in a deeper Categories League and you need some pop, middle infield, makes some sense there. Last two names in deeper leagues, Edward Olivaris, we talk about them a lot. I wish they would just let them play every day.

I mean, I guess they have no choice now that their whole team is on the restricted list. But he went three for three with a walk in RBI. He's 14% rostered. He's batting 310 with an 825 OPS. I feel like that's all he does. And then Lioti Tavares with the Rangers, he's hot right now. Two for four with an RBI. He started four straight games.

He's now betting 338 overall, two homers, four steals in 27 games, and the strikeout rate, 24% is very manageable. Only 9% rostered. Chris, let's say you need a speedy outfielder in a deeper league. Would you rather take a shot on Olivares or Lioti Tavares? I think Tavares. He actually attempted another steal today. That's four straight games with an attempted steal.

He did got caught stealing. I think it was a pretty close play. But you know, that's a good sign that they're giving him the the green light like that. And all of ours, I mean, he's played he has 304 plate appearances in the majors. He's got 11 home runs and four stolen bases. Like I don't understand that was before. You know, today he upped his batting average a decent amount as well. So I think like he could be a 270 hitter with 15 homers and 15 steals.

And that's probably not the absolute. peak of the ceiling. So I wish the Royals would give him a chance. And look, Michael Taylor, I think he's on the restricted list as well, but it sounds like he might go on the aisle once they're back from Toronto. If he wasn't placed on the aisle, I'm not sure how that exactly worked. But he's dealing with a shoulder issue. So that could open up an opportunity for some playing time in the outfield. Before we hit the break, I want to remind everyone, hopefully you're still listening at this point so you understand what's going on next week because it's a completely a different schedule than what we're used to, but here's what we have. Sunday night, there will be a live

stream here on YouTube, a weekend first half recap with Chris and Janice Scurio of NBC Sports Edge. So that will be a live stream Sunday night, you know, 10 p.m. Eastern Time, something like that. And that will be in your podcast feeds Monday morning. Might go a little earlier, actually. Okay. Because I think the last game is at four on Sunday. Cool. It sounds good. Yeah. If you could go 8, 9 p.m. just be on the lookout. That's why you need to have your notification bell on for YouTube so you know whenever we go live. Monday night, there will be another live stream that will be an MLB draft recap and early first year player draft rankings for Dynasty with Chris and our buddy the Welsh.

So we don't talk a lot about the MLB draft, but I know the Welsh is like all in on what's going on right now and he's done a few different prospects. A podcast already talking about that. So he's well versed and he's ready to talk about it. So if you play in Dynasty. to feel incredibly old because it's Andrew Jones and there's another kid of a former player who is one of the top prospects. I think it's Matt Holiday.

Yeah, Matt Holiday, son. Yeah. So like, man, those guys aren't even that old. I was just going to say, like, he was playing like six years ago or something, right? Like, he didn't retire that long ago. Like, Chris, you could have been one of these guys' dads. Legitimately.

I would have had to have a really young kid. Like that would have been like. like high school. Scott could. Yeah, Scott, yeah. It's crazy stuff,

man. Yeah, but Drew Jones is looking like he might be the first overall picks. So these guys will talk all about it. So for those of you

who are playing Dynasty leagues, that'll be a lot of fun. And then we don't have live streams Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night next week, but we will have podcasts. Wednesday morning will be

a two-round redraft for the rest of the season. That's what Scott, Chris and myself. Thursday morning pod will be first half lessons and second half breakouts. That's with Chris and me.

And then, Friday's pod will be a whole bunch of stuff. Closers that could be traded, starting pitchers with innings limits, sell high players, category targets, all that fun stuff. That will be on Friday next week. And then the following week, we'll be back with a normal schedule and live streams every single night throughout the rest of the season. Let's take a break, and we'll be back with news and notes right after this.

The news and notes, Jacob de Grom through four innings while allowing an unearned run and striking out four in his latest rehab start at AAA. He got up to 42 pitches. in that outing and is expected to throw a simulated game at some point during the All-Star break. Chris, do you think DeGrom is in the rotation right after the break? I guess it's possible. It seems a little early. That would be what?

I guess this is his fourth rehab start? Yeah. I guess it's possible, yeah. I don't know. I guess I hadn't really thought about that possibility. But it makes sense. Only 42 pitches, so I would think maybe he needs a couple more, but we'll see. Hey, you know, those Braves are, they're cutting it close right now in the division.

Mets might be starting to feel it. Yeah, they need the ground for sure. This one came out of nowhere. Shane Boz placed on the IL with a right elbow sprain after he experienced discomfort playing catch on Tuesday. And he'll receive a PRP injection for his elbow and will rest in rehab for a month before being reevaluated. So I don't know if we're going to get anything else out of Shane Bos the rest of the regular season. Chris, if you play in leagues without an IL spot, is it okay to drop Shane Bosz? Yeah, I think you probably have to if you don't have an IL spot. And even if you have limited IL spots, like there's a lot of guys out there who, I mean, you're probably looking at he's shut down for four weeks. It's probably at least three or four weeks before he's able to come back even if everything goes right, which there's no guarantee it does. Yeah. And a little spoiler alert. One of those podcasts we did second half breakouts, and we already recorded it, and Shane Boss was one of them. So just kind of skip over that part.

Fernando, just, okay, here's what you do. When you hear us say Shane Boss, just in your head, you hear Max Meyer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that. That's the way to do it. That's your Shane Boss replacement. So every time you hear us say Shane Boss on that podcast, it's just Max Myers name in the same spot. We got an update for Fernando Tatis, but it wasn't really. an update. The doctors are, quote, not in total agreement regarding the next steps, regarding his left wrist. And it sounds like they're going to continue being extremely cautious with Fernando Tatis, which I understand he's one of the prized assets in all of baseball. But it just kind of sucks for redraft fantasy because, you know, we're holding them all season and waiting. And we just don't really know right now. No more motorcycles. No, yeah. How about mopeds, Chris? You know I have a Moped, right? No, no, no Pobids. I would, you know, I see they've got these revel scooters around.

Oh, yeah. They're a lot of fun. The amount of times I've seen people like nearly crash into a car just starting. The fact that you can just like, you get a phone and you can just rent one. It's, it's so stupid. You do have to be 21 years old and have a driver's license, so. Sure, that's the only qualifications. You don't have to prove you've ever ridden anything with two wheels to

do it. It's ridiculous. I will admit, right? So the Revell things, they're just scooters that you can rent in the neighborhood here in Queens and Brooklyn. And the first couple of times I had one, I like dropped it every time. Like I tried to rev it and I just dropped it. I was like, what am I doing? How am I allowed to do this? But I got used to it. I'm riding the brakes when I'm like riding the city bikes, which are just regular bicycles. Yeah. So no, no thank you on the Rebels. Yeah. I mean, scooters really. I liked it so much. I wound up buying myself a scooter. There you go.

No mistakes yet. Thankfully. Jose Altova exited on Thursday after being hit by a pitch on his left knee. We'll see what happens with that. Mike Trout did not start Thursday, but is expected to return Friday against the Dodgers. After missing four games,

Starling Marte returned and was batting second for the Mets on Thursday. I believe he went two for four in that game. Luis Severino was indeed placed on the IEL with a low-grade right lat strain, and he missed most of the... 2019 season with a latch train. So, you know, kind of recurring injuries here. We'll see how long he's going to be out. But with that, we mentioned Domingo Hermon on yesterday's podcast. He's

scheduled to make his fifth rehab start on Friday at AAA. And if all goes well, maybe gets a shot in the second half to fill in for Luis Severino. Christian Yelich has missed three straight with midback tightness, but it sounds like he could be back on Friday. Luis Patino will likely be reinstated to start Friday against the Orioles, and in six rehab starts, he has a 3.57 ERA, 125 whip, just over a strikeout running, 23% rostered. Chris, I know Patino was someone that you liked. Would you be looking to add him in deeper leagues? Yeah, I remain intrigued by his skill set.

He didn't really get nearly as many strikeouts or swings and misses as you would want last season. So, you know, hopefully there's some room for him to improve on that. he did get, you know, decent strikeout numbers in the, in the minors. So hopefully, um, hopefully that can carry over 19 strikeouts in 17 and 2 thirds innings in his rehab outings. So yeah, I'm, I'm interested to see what he can do. And if he has a good start, you know, I think that would push him ahead of like the Braxton Garrett tier that we were talking about earlier.

Yeah, I was just going to say it. Like if you can only pick up one, would it be Patineo or Garrett? If I'm speculating before Patino starts, I, I, I, think I'd be okay just going with him just because I don't think you're going to miss out on much with Garrett especially because he's probably going to be like the fourth starter coming out of the rotation or out of the All-Star break so like you might not be able to use him until would that be week 18 whatever the first week after the weekend series coming out of the All-Star break so I don't think there's a huge need to add him all right national to manager dave martinez labeled Kyle Finnegan as

the guy for the closer role. which we expected. John Bertie exited on Thursday due to a mild left groin strain. So that's not great. Stephen Matts is targeting a return for Sunday's game against the Reds. He's 55% rostered.

Chris, do you have any interest in Stephen Mats? I don't really understand why he's 55% rostered. Yeah, I don't get that. Given how long he's been out. I don't understand the thought process there, guys. Aaron Savali was placed on the IL with a right wrist brain.

Tyler O'Neill was... What? Just love the auto correct on that one. Aaron Savale was placebo in the right west brain. Yeah, I'm a little kind of out of it trying to make this run... We've done so many podcasts this week that, you know, it's... Oh, that was one of my favorite Adam Azer bits was the podcast, the rundown typos. So...

Yeah, I try, but, you know, sometimes they slip through. Tyler O'Neill was reinstated from the IL batting 6 against the Dodgers. Frank Schwendell was activated from the IL Thursday. Any interest in him, Chris? He's 47% roster. I think that sounds about right. We'll see what he does when he gets a couple games under his belt.

But, you know, a lot of swing and miss there. I'm not sure he's an impact hitter, so I'm not rushing out to Adam. Frankie, two hits. Let's see if he can make the magic happen again in the second half. Steven Strassberg was transferred to the 60-day IL with that stress reaction of his ribs. Bruce Starr-Grathol placed in the IL

with right shoulder inflammation. And I don't know if this matters, but I saw multiple reports and tweets, and maybe it does matter. I don't know. The Rangers called up 27-year-old outfielder Elieer Hernandez, who was having a pretty good year at AAA,

2.95 batting average, 11 homers, nine steals, 9-10 OPS. And he was once a top prospect in the Royals organization. I read, I think, from 2012 to 2018, He was like a top 30 prospect all of those years. So it's kind of like a post-hype thing. I don't know, Chris.

Is there anything to know about Elia Hernandez? He had a couple of hits off Marco Gonzalez today. Neither of them was hit particularly hard. I can't say I know much about him, but, you know, decent numbers, but a 27-year-old at AAA, my interest is not super high based on that. And I saw that they called him up

because they're facing a bunch of lefties this weekend, and he's a right-handed batterer. So might just stick around for now, but in deeper Dynasty leagues, I guess a name to watch, Elier Hernandez. Buy low or no thanks, bro, on this hitter, Jonathan India. He went two for four against the Yankees on Thursday. He's slowly coming around. His last eight games, he's hitting 3.14, one homer, one steel,

six runs scored. He's down to 80% rostered. Could be out there in some shallower leagues. The batter ball metrics, Chris, are awful. But with good players, we've seen that, Those can turn around really quickly, you know, a couple of really good weeks and all of a sudden, you know, things look a lot better. Would you be looking to buy low on Jonathan India right now if you could? I was pretty skeptical of him coming in, so I can't say I'm super interested in the prospect of buying low.

His strikeout rates up, his power is down. The underlying metrics are all pretty mediocre as well. So I don't know. I just, I don't think he's that good, I think is what it comes down to. And his pull-heavy approach allowed him to hit for decent power last season. And it'll be less impacted by the ball not traveling as far. But I still think he's, he doesn't have a lot of wiggle room in his swing, I think, to be a power hitter. So I'm not super excited about the prospects of trading for Jonathan India.

You know where I would look to buy low right now? I mean, I don't know how low you're going to be able to buy. coming off, you know, National League Rookie of the Year, in Dynasty. I still kind of trust that, you know, there is something there in terms of power, speed, good plate discipline, leading off for, you know, not a great lineup, but a very good venue to hit in. So, hopefully the manager who has him in the Scott White Dynasty League is not listening because I was trying to conjure up an offer right before this podcast, but I couldn't think of anything yet. So we'll see if I can land him.

should you cash out on these pitchers while you can. They all had great starts here on Thursday. Let's find out. Trista McKenzie posted a career high, 12 strikeouts against the Tigers. He went eight shutout, five hits, zero walks, 12Ks, as I mentioned, 18 swinging strikes, and he's got a 3.2 OERA. The X-FIP is much higher, up over four. So nearly a whole run higher.

He allows a lot of hard contact, a lot of fly balls. He's someone who might just always have a high X-FIP, so I'm not so sure about selling high on him, but we can talk about it. Tyler Anderson had a strong start at the Cardinals, six shutout with four strikeouts there. His ERA is down below three. Nestor Cortez bounces back with a seven-ending quality start

against the Reds. He goes seven, one run, four strikeouts there. He's got a 2.63 ERA. And Chris, your favorite. Martine Perez, season high, nine strikeouts against the Mariners, five innings, one run, nine strikeouts to four walks. The ERA is 2.7.

Would you be looking to cash out before the regression hits, Chris, on McKenzie, Tyler Anderson, Nestor Cortez, Martin Perez? I think all of them are sell high candidates more or less. Mackenzie is one who I really do like, but the fly ball rate is just, it's going to be untenable at some point. And the fact that it hasn't hurt him consistently yet is, I think there's a bit of luck there because it's not just that he gives up a lot of fly balls, but he gives up a lot of hard hit flyball. And so he mitigates some of it with, you know, getting pop-ups and fly balls turn into outs at a relatively high rate. The problem is when they don't, they tend to be very, very bad for your ERA. And so he's someone who I think is probably going to be more like a four ERA pitcher. That can be useful, you know, when it's combined with what should be a low whip and a decent strikeout rate. So I'm not saying Tristan McKenzie can't be a starting caliber player.

him and Josiah Gray are very much like the Spider-Man meme in a lot of ways. They just have bad fastballs that get hard. I think McKenzie, his curveball might be better than any pitch that Josiah Gray has, but Josiah Gray's two breaking balls are probably better than McKenzie's second breaking ball. So I think they're very similar players. And then look, Cortez and Perez, like, I think they're probably more like mid-to-high-3 ZRA guys. so if you can turn them into someone who you know like Lucas Gialito

I would trade Nester Cortez for Lucas Gialito even with the concerns that we have about Lucas Gialito I think that would make a lot of sense I think even I would probably rather have Charlie Morton than either of them rest of season so if I could trade either of them for Charlie Morton I would feel a little less great about that

after his most recent start but I would do it would you do it for Lance Lynn no Perez probably Cortez probably not What do you think about Tyler Anderson Because I wonder if the Dodgers Make some trades for a pitcher

You know will he remain in the rotation Look life finds a way I get it Tony Gonsland has some injury history Kirshaw has some injury history And he's been very good I don't want to discount what he's done But you know it's also Tyler Anderson So

Yeah and and Haney should be back soon So I do think there is Room for Anderson to fall out of the rotation at some point if he falters. You know, I don't think if he keeps running a sub three R a that's going to happen, but we don't expect him to have a sub three R a. So he's, you know, in that like 60 to 70 range at starting pitcher for me, I think he's useful.

But there's definitely some risk that he just has very little value at some point. And I do say cash out while you can somewhat facetiously, right? Like, you know, make sure you're getting good value. Don't just try to trade these players for the sake of trading them. You know, everyone's favorite by low hitter. I feel like we bring up Nick Castellanos all the time. I don't know if he's going to come around, but based on his track record, I would have to say he's going to be better than what he's done so far.

Same thing with like Catelle Marte. I think that's a pretty obvious one as well. So a few names that you could look at if you want to sell high and buy low. Some pitching leftovers. Part one. Kevin Gossman finally makes his return with a quality start versus the Royals. He goes six. Two runs allowed, six strikeouts.

He had 14 swinging strikes in this one. Kyle Wright had a strong start at, the nationals, seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts, and he gave up the two runs early, you know, one run in each of the first two innings, and then really settled down. You like to see that from a young starting pitcher. And then Luis Castillo, he's now allowed three earned runs total over his last four starts, and he was at the Yankees, seven innings, only two hits allowed, one run, eight strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes, and Chris, I'm just going to keep bringing it up.

The four-scene fastball, I feel like this has really unlocked Luis Castillo because he can get whiffs with it. And obviously, you know, not throwing a sinker as much. Sinker gets a lot of ground balls, but anything can happen when the ball is in play. So I think when you couple this fastball with the changeup and the slider, it's just everything's kind of working for Luis Castillo right now. What do you think about him? Kyle Wright, Kevin Gosman. Yeah, what's interesting about Castillo is the change up hasn't really been as great of a pitch for him this season. He's actually, you know, lately been using his slider about as often as his changeup. It was about 23% in the month of July, you know, entering today's start.

You know, he used the change up more than the slider today. So it's going to bounce back a little bit. But the change up, only three whiffs on it. You know, whiff rate for the season is like 25% for the month of July. His whiff rate on the changeup is 16%. And that's interesting because it coincidental. sides with the increased usage of the fastball, of the four-seem fastball, excuse me. And I wonder if the four-seem fastball just doesn't pair as well with the change-up.

You know, the sinker might have more of that arm-side run. The four-seam fastball has more rise, and the change-up typically, you know, moves to the arm-side. So I do wonder if that change is making the change-up a little less effective, and he'll have to rely on the four-seem fastball for whiffs, and he'll have to rely on the slider. for whiffs more than he has in the past. But that being said, I think the results are good enough that I'm not too concerned there. It's just something I'm going to be keeping an eye on. And then I think Osman's just awesome.

He's a top 10 pitcher for me. He's healthy. I looked good. I have no concerns moving forward. I think caught right. It's really good. You know, the strikeouts aren't there like they were in the first half of the, you know, early parts of the season.

And maybe he's not going to be a strikeout pitcher. But I, uh, I still like what we're. we're seeing from him as far as the results that he's getting and the way he's pitching. So I don't really have any real concerns about right as far as the strikeout rate being down. But it does, you know, it lowers his ceiling. He's not a, he's like 34 for me or something like that. Pitching and leftovers part two. Carlos Carrasco has now allowed two earn runs or fewer in three straight.

He was at the Cubs. He goes six shutout with six strikeouts. He had 14 swinging strikes on 9. pitches, the velocity down a little bit. So something to pay attention to, like nearly two miles per hour. So it's kind of significant. Framber Valdez makes it 15 straight quality starts. 15 straight.

Six innings, two runs, six strikeouts at the Angels. His ERA is 2.66 on the season. And then Corbyn Burns, a strong start at the Giants. Seven and a third, two runs, 10 strikeouts to three walks. He had 17 swinging strikes on 115 pitches. you know, he was like, he was right at, I think, 102 pitches through seven. I'm not really sure why they called them out for the eighth inning. It seems a little bit aggressive, but hey, you know, he's one of the premier starting pitchers in baseball.

I guess he has earned it. Burns, Valdez, Carrasco. Anything on these, Chris? Carrasco remains frustrating, but I think there's going to be more good than bad moving forward. There has been, I think, more good than bad overall, even if the overall numbers are pretty middling. But the weird thing is like there hasn't really been like a good explanation for why he struggled when he has struggled You know the the pitch mix the movement the velocity has mostly stayed steady so You know I think you look at the underlying numbers they mostly suggest he's been more like a mid three Z a ray guy and I think he'll be that moving forward

All right. I am Watching the Giants and Brewers game currently which is in the 10th inning and I just saw that Christian Yelich is pinch running for Victor Caratini's So it's a nice sign to see, and hopefully he can get back in the lineup over the weekend. Chris, I've mentioned many times that I think Charlie Morton has been the most frustrating pitcher so far this season. But a close second, Blake Snell, I understand the start was in Coresfield. His two previous starts were amazing. I think he had 23 strikeouts over his last two starts. But look, Corse Field, maybe it did, but did it really make him walk six batters today?

I understand the ball moves a little bit differently, but really? three and two thirds, five runs, six walks. And he continues to, like, in this start, he threw his fastball a bunch. And his fastball has been very bad this year. His most recent starts when he was great. His curb ball is the one that he was leaning into. You know, man, that's the thing that, yeah, Corsefield could affect for sure. I just, I think this is kind of who he is now.

I think he's erratic. There's going to be good moments and bad moments, but it's hard to trust him. How can you put him in your lineup, Chris? You put him in your lineup Right after he gets all these strikeouts And then you get a start like this You know, not that you should have started him in course field He's probably not someone that you start against everyone

He's probably not someone you start at course field There are not more than a couple dozen or a few dozen I'm saying that right? Does that make sense? Like 24-ish couple dozen? Yeah, I think that makes sense Starting pitchers who you would definitely start at course field You know maybe 36 maybe three dozen I don't know why I've decided to use that that naming convention

but we'll just go with it so he's not that guy. He's 54 for me at starting pitcher. I think he's just going to be frustrating. There's going to be a lot of good and some really, really bad. Yeah, frustrating is the word man. Because I guarantee you the people who have him did not start him for those two starts with double-digit strikeouts. And like maybe you threw him back in

because you're like, all right, he's back on track. And then this happens. He's just so, so frustrating, Blake Snow. Hitting leftovers from Thursday. Stop me if you've heard this before. Ahmed Rosario, three for five with a double and a run scored. That's four straight multi-hit games. He's now batting 290 overall.

Remains 78% rostered. That is Ahmed Rosario. Andres Jimenez went two for three with his 10th home run. He's batting 294, also has seven steals. You know what I thought, Chris, going through the box score of this game? Maybe the Guardians didn't do so bad. in trading Francisco Lindor. I understand Lindor is much better than both of these players.

I get it. But, you know, based on the way the Guardians operate, Rosario and Jimenez are having great seasons. Yeah, it's one of those, like, if they had to trade him. So I guess if they had to trade him, sure. I mean, yeah, they're, they, they have both seemingly taken some big steps forward. The quality of contact has been better for both of them, especially Jimenez. So, yeah, I think they're, they're both.

both majorly caliber starters. And the Guardians don't have a ton of those. Don't yeah, look, I don't knock it yet. I don't like the Guardians lineup. I know they don't rank very highly in terms of run scored, but you know, they've. Oh, actually, they've been pesky this year. Do you know who had the hardest hit ball in that game? Stephen Kwan. Stephen Kwan had 107.1 mile per hour hard hit ball.

Let's go. Ahmed Rosario had two that were 107 miles per hour. But, you know, that is by far the hardest hit ball of Stephen Kwan's career. His previous high was 103. So he's playing well. There you go. He's playing well. Look, and I say that playing well, he's hitting for batting average.

That's what Stephen Kwan is doing right now. Bobby, what? Uh-oh. He had two batted balls over 105 miles per hour today and another one that was 99 miles per hour. The two batted balls hit over 105 miles per hour were both groundouts. So does this matter, Chris? No. All right, well, thank you for Sherry.

Bobby Wood Jr. had a sock and a shoe, his 13th home run, his 17th steel, and the home run came off of Kevin Gossman. And nice little sneak peek for our two-round redraft rest of season. Bobby Witt Jr. either made the cut or he was very, very close. You'll have to listen and see. We call that a tease. Yeah. Luis Robert went three for five with his 12th home run. He added five RBI.

and it looks like it's happening. The breakout right now, July. He's hitting 328, 4 homers, 12 runs, 16 RBI. Not hitting the ball all that hard, which I found interesting, but he is putting the ball in the air. That is Luis Roberts, so that has helped very much.

Josh Bell went 2 for 5 with his 13th home run. He is betting 300 with an 868 OPS, and I believe he's in a contract year, so I would not be surprised if he gets traded at some point. Freddie Freeman went 2 for 3. He now has 13 hits over his last 4-G, games and he's betting 320 overall. When did that happen? Probably over these last four games, as Chris told me before we started. Braves hit a trio of long balls in Washington. Danesby

Swanson hit his 15th. Matt Olson hit his 16th. Michael Harris hit his eighth home run. Aaron Judge went one for four with his 31st homer. Pete Alonzo went one for four with his 24th homer and he has been in a bit of a home run drought recently, but not really concerned. He's awesome. Jesse Winker went two for five and he looks like he might get going here. Two homers on Wednesday, two more hits here on Thursday. I know you mentioned he kind of changed up his batting stance a little bit. So Jesse Winker is someone that we are watching closely. The call to the bullpen for the Rockies.

Daniel Bard was unavailable. Alex Colomé is a little banged up. I saw that he has a hamstring thing that he's dealing with. And Carlos Estevez picked up his first save of the season. For Tampa Bay, they had a two-run lead. Brooks Raleigh recorded two outs in the eighth inning. Jason Adam recorded the final out of that inning. And then Jalen Beeks gave up a run in the ninth,

but converted his first save of the season. For the Braves, Kenley Jansen allowed a solo homer but picked up his 21st save for the Royals. Scott Barlow, he's been great. He gave up a hit, but picked up his 16th save of the season. And then for the Mariners, Paul Seawald unavailable. He pitched in both games of the doubleheader on Wednesday.

Diego Castillo picked up his sixth save of the season. To stream or not to stream for the weekend. Friday, Kyle Gibson at the Marlins, Tyler Wells at the Rays, Devin Smelzer versus the White Sox, Cole Irvin at the Astros, Andre Palante versus the Reds, and Madison Bumgarner at the Padres.

Smash the starting pitcher against the Marlins button. Let's do it. Kyle Gibson. Saturday, we've got Nick Ladolo at the Cardinals, Dean Kramer at the raise, Trevor Rogers versus the Phillies, and Alex Cobb versus the Brewers. Cobb's the one I would recommend,

but I still have some faith in Rogers. I hope so, Chris, because you traded me him in the Scott White Dynasty. I need to see something. Well, I got Jose Burrios back for him, so it hasn't exactly worked out for me. Yeah, fair. You know, Saturday's kind of interesting

because there are some decent pitchers here. Like, I like Nicola Dolo, but I don't really want to start him at the Cardinals. So, yeah, I think I would pass on these names. Sunday, we have Jordan Lyles at the raise, Chris Flexson at the Rangers, Glenn Otto versus the Mariners, Adrian Samson versus the Mets, David Peterson at the Cubs and Jake Odorizzi versus the A's. Can he do it again, Chris? I like Peterson and Oteresee. Hey, the last time. Is this three starts in a row for Oterese against the A's? It might be, honestly. You know, it was weird because every week I would look up for the Friday podcast, I would look up streamers for the following week. And every week, the Astros were going up against

the A's. I was like, what's going on? Is it like the schedule messed up? But yeah, I just think it worked out that way. Yeah. But last time Chris recommended Oteresey against the A's, he went off. It was like seven shutouts, seven strikeouts. So yeah, let's go with that one again. All right. The first half is in the books. It's been a great season so far. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. Chris will be back again on Monday.

Bye-bye.