Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Max Scherzer AND Trea Turner Traded to the Dodgers! - Emergency Podcast (7/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 30, 2021

The Dodgers are looking to repeat after acquiring both Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. What does this do for both of their values? Who might lose playing time on the Dodgers? How soon might we see Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray with the Nationals? Should you be worried about Juan Soto with the lineup getting worse? 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55" TV, portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to cbssports.com/homerun to enter. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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

Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam. The defending World Series champs are looking to repeat as they just made a massive blockbuster. Welcome into another emergency edition of fantasy baseball today on Thursday, July 29th. Frank Staple joined by Scott White. Wow. Just, wow, what can you possibly say? The Dodgers. A team that already has an all-star roster, Scott, adding Max Scherzer and Tray Turner.

And in doing so, they swipe Max Scherzer away from their division rival San Diego Padres, who originally were reported to be close to acquiring him early on Thursday. Collusion! Collusion! The Dodgers and the Nationals are conspiring to break the league. It's unbelievable. Wow. Let's start with Max Scherzer.

He's been really good this year. He's the SP 15 in fantasy points per game. He made a start on Thursday, six innings, one run, five strikeouts. the ERA down to 2.76. He's got a 0.89 whip, a whole bunch of strikeouts, and actually a career high, 16.4% swinging strike rate. I don't know that this changes as much, Scott, but what do you think?

Sure is it to the Dodgers. I mean, going to do a better team's going to help his win potential, and he's somebody who goes deep enough to get wins with consistency. You know, maybe he's, I rarely look at pitchers win loss records, you know, because they're not predictive in any way. Same. Okay, so 7 and 4 and 18 starts. You know, pretty nice win pace already,

but it only gets more likely that Scherzer is going to be piling up wins. Yeah, I think Max Scherzer is one of the least affected people in this deal. There are other players on the Dodgers that are affected. Trey Turner might be affected, but I think Scherzer just hold steady. So once Clayton Kershaw returns, which they're talking about that happening, weekend. Who do you think gets the boot from the rotation? Tony Gonsolin or David Price? It's a good question. I mean, Price, they were just beginning to stretch him out. So my guess would be him just because he hasn't been in the rotation as long. He would get the

boot over Gonsolin. Gonsolin was the guy they preferred to be in first. But at the same time, it's taken Gonsolins so long to stretch out. I mean, he's gone, I think he's gone 80 pitches and thrown 80 pitches in three straight starts. So I guess he's, I guess he's, getting there. And he's looked pretty good. My guess is David Price, but they have options now. They have options in the rotation once everybody's healthies, and then it seems like Kershaw will be soon.

And they certainly have options in their starting lineup after acquiring Tray Turner. And, yeah, I'm trying to think, like, who is the Dodgers third starter? Who's their number three starter? It's three co-aces, right? Because Walker Bueller, he's actually been the best. pitcher in fantasy. I know in points leagues, I assume in Roto, too,

because he's gotten so many more innings than DeGrom. Jacob de Grom. So I'm assuming Bueller would be number three, just because he's not necessarily Hall of Fame bound like those other two. But, like, it's worth reminding people who, because, you know,

there's kind of this feeling surrounding Kershal and Shursa are both. They're getting older. You know, they haven't been maybe as, dominant in recent years. Certainly Scherzer, you could make that case for him last year. But they are numbers one and two right now. Scherzer followed by Kershaw in swinging strike rate,

the ultimate measure of dominance in my mind. Their numbers one and two, at least among qualifiers. I mean, DeGroms is way higher, but he doesn't qualify anymore. So Scherzer and Kershaw definitely still got it. Yeah, and that's definitely going to play in the postseason two. Good luck to any teams that have to face a three. of sorry for the verbiage there

but of Walker Bueller we've been doing a lot of these Walker Bueller, Max Scherzer and Clayton Kirshuds. And then they got Julio Reyes there still too. Yeah, even if they want to go with four guys in the postseason. They can do that. They have that luxury.

Trey Turner was the other huge piece in this deal and he's actually arbitration eligible in 2022. So the Dodgers have him not only for the rest of this season, but for next season. Max Scherzer is actually a free agent after this season. He's on the COVID-I-L right now. On the season, Trey Turner's batting 322, 18 homers, 21 steals.

He is the fifth ranked player in Roto. And it sounds like he is going to play second base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. So Corey Seeger expected to return on Friday. He will remain at shortstop. Trey Turner will slide over to second base. He will have dual eligibility, Scott. Oh, yeah. And I mean, shortstop, the depth runs out at some point, too.

so you may still want to play him at shortstop, but second base is certainly weaker at the top, and it's possible, you know, if you're already rostering two great shortstops, this may, this will make your life a little easier. Now you saw that, how official is it that Turner's playing second base? I saw a lot of speculation along those lines. I saw John Heyman tweet about it,

so there's probably nothing official yet, but. He sounded, his verbiage sounded, pretty definite, but, you know, he fires off a lot of tweets in a short period of time. Yeah, sometimes the wires get crossed. So, I don't know.

But yeah, that seems most likely Turner's played second base in the majors before. He's also played center field in the majors before. Wouldn't it be crazy if he got triple eligibility as much as the Dodgers like to mix it up? True. So, I mean, you know, from a fantasy's perspective,

he's the even bigger dip than Scherzer because Turner, you mentioned top five in Roto this year. And like if we were redrafting for next year, he'd be like at worst, the sixth player taken, maybe the seventh player taken. Something like that.

And obviously he's been a first rounder for a long time. I do wonder maybe if he runs a little less in the Dodgers lineup just because they're so loaded. But like I said, for Starling Marte going to the A's, I feel like generally when T's, acquire a guy who is mostly known for stealing bases, they continue to steal bases. And I would say, I would say Turner fits that description.

So I expect him to keep running. It'll be interesting to see where he bats. I mean, Corey Seeger, Corey Seeger, we haven't seen play a major league game since May 15th. It's been a long time now. But it sounds like he's returning right when Turner's joining the lineup. Seeger was pretty much a fixture at the top there, right? Betts and Seeger 1 and 2. So I don't know what that means for Turner.

Maybe Seger moves down. Maybe not, though. Maybe Turner bats fifth or sixth. I think that's possible. So that would obviously hurt his value a little bit. It wouldn't hurt it a lot, but it would hurt it a little bit. So I think picking up second base, is obviously big for Turner's value,

but there is going to be a little bit of a trade off there. Nothing that's going to dramatically swing his value one way or another, but just it's something to keep in mind. It's something to keep in mind. The Turner part of this trade, that's what makes it a real shocker, because, you know, you'd think for like a franchise-type player like that,

who still has a year of control left after this year, the nationals would have to be blown away by the return, especially if you're including Scherzer with them. And I just, I mean, we'll get into the nationals return in a minute, but I just, if I'm a GM, I'm not sure this is a blow me away type of return for those two guys, especially when you consider, apparently they had a pretty good offer from the Padres just for Scherzer.

I wonder now what it was in retrospect. Yeah, no, it's a great point that you bring up, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. We'll get into some of those players, the prospects in particular, who could have fantasy value as soon as this season, next month now, yeah. Next week it could even be. I just want to finish out everything here on the Dodgers lineup because someone is going to lose playing time, I would imagine, because you have Justin Turner at third base, you have Max Muncie at first base, Trey Turner at second, if that's what they go with, Corey Seeger at shortstop, the outfield, mooky bets, Cody Bellinger, some common name. of Chris Taylor and AJ Pollock, but that some combination part of it means that

maybe those guys are splitting time, maybe they cut Cody Bellinger's playing time as bad as he's been. What do you think happens there? Yeah, so, yeah, I think Cody Bellinger, I'd be concerned about his playing time if you didn't already have reason to be concerned about his usefulness to your fantasy team going forward.

I mean, he's just, the Dodgers are at a point now, where, I mean, they're highly invested in this year, right? They need to make some hay here. They need to make sure they win games. And rehabilitating Belling Bellinger may come into conflict with that, especially since, you know, you get Seeger back, coming back, presumably Trey Turner playing second base.

That means Max Muncie obviously can't take him out. He's taken over full-time at first base. Betz is going to be back, I think, as early as this weekend. Yep. So he's locked up right field. So that just leaves center field for Bellinger, which, of course, he could play and play well. But then there's still Chris Taylor, who's having a career year, been a very valuable piece, and they're still A.J. Pollack. So, I mean, at this point, Pollock, Taylor, Bellinger, you know, Bellinger's the least useful right now.

are still in second place. They're in second place by three games. They got to lock up the division. So I'd be very worried about Bellinger's playing time, certainly against left-handed pitchers. And I'd be worried about Pollock's playing time. Be a little worried about Chris Taylor's playing time, though I imagine he'll get the most of those three. He'll probably just bounce around and give days off to guys here and there, which, you know, isn't the best thing. for those other guys that he's going, you know, just the crowding in the Dodgers lineup is going to rob a little bit from everybody, I would assume. But it'll rob the most from Bellinger and Pollock. I think that's a text from A.J. Preler, Scott, he's trying to make a trade in your dynasty league.

Ah, yes. It is a text from somebody in my dynasty league. Oh, is it me? One of my late text? No, it's Michael Herkham. Yeah, all right. For those who've listened to the podcast for a long time, you may remember him. Let's talk about the return in this trade. So, Trey Turner and Max Scher's are going to the Dodgers. And in return, Washington receives catcher prospect, I mean, great prospect. And Khybert Ruiz, pitcher prospect, and Josiah Gray.

They also received two lower-level prospects in Herardo Carrillo. He's a pitcher and outfielder Donovan Casey. So let's start with Khybert Ruiz. Scott. He was absolutely crushing AAA, was batting 311, 16 homers, a 10-12 OPS. He's 23 years old. It wouldn't surprise me. if we see him debut for the nationals in the coming weeks.

I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if he took over as their starting catcher right away. He was blocked by Will Smith for the Dodgers, obviously, and wasn't, you know, Smith's so entrenched now and has so many years of control left that it was obvious Keybert Ruiz was just going to be trade bait now. But he's had a breakout season at AAA. Did you give the numbers already, Frank? Yep. Yeah, 16 home runs in 52 games.

His career high previously was 12, and he's already at 16 in just 52 games. So there was a question of whether he'd ever develop power to be a fantasy asset. Now, he's such a good defender, you know, that he remained high in the prospect rankings anyway. And he has, like, exceptional contact skills, really good at putting the bat on the ball.

So, you know, there was a chance he was going to be a pretty good hitter, even if he wasn't much of a power source. But now that it appears that he's developed power, making some adjustments at the alternate training site, that led to harder contact there, and it's clearly translating to numbers now, I mean, he might be somebody who we're talking about

is the best catcher in baseball in a couple years. Like, it is a good get. Like, if you're going to get a prospect from a team, this is a good one to get. You know, catcher prospects specifically have a high failure rate, but I'm encouraged by the fact Ruiz makes so much contact. Let's assume, I have a little fun here. Khybert Ruiz traded to the Nationals.

He is in their lineup this weekend. He's called up right away. Would you rather have Khybert Ruiz or Dalton Varsho? I'd rather have Varsho, but Varsho's been hot. steals bases and he's playing every day, probably more often than the average catcher because he plays outfield too.

Would you rather have Ruiz or Eric Haas? Hoss. I mean, particularly with what we've seen from Prospect Collips the past two years. Like, you've got to prove something first. So what range would Ruiz fall into? Would you rather have him over someone like Yadir, Malina, Sean Murphy, those guys?

I think that's comparable. I think that's, I think I'd take the chance on the other. upside in most leagues if it came to that. Yeah. Okay. And again, this is assuming that Kaibir Ruiz is starting, which we don't know yet, but we could see him very soon. So if that were to happen, that would put Kaibiruiz right

around catcher 12 or 13 in Scott's rankings. So keep that in mind. The other big prospect that the Nationals received, Josiah Gray, who we have seen recently with the Dodgers, 198 minor league endings for him, 2.41 ERA, 0.93 whip. Fantastic numbers. He's only pitched eight in the majors this season. He's got a 20.8% swinging strike rate. So it's a very small

sample, but what we've seen to this point, he looks the part. He does, and the overall results weren't great. It's worth noting, but that is an eye-popping missed bat's rate. I mean, DeGrom is in another world. Jacob

deGrom is as far as swinging strikes go, and his rate is 21.6%. So Josiah Gray, in that little bit, we've seen him in the majors, has managed to meet that. a good strikeout numbers in the minors too but the fact

the fact he's come up at the majors and while you know may still be a little rough around the edges he's able to he's been able to deceive and overpower hitters immediately like that I mean I think a lot more of Josiah Gray's potential now than I did two weeks ago

to me it's very encouraging stuff and of course the nationals have an opening in the rotation right away. Part of the reason I've kind of been writing off Josiah Gray as a fantasy pickup is because we knew he was going to get sent back down as soon as Kirchow was back. Well, now he's probably here to stay.

Probably, I would say. I mean, I guess it's possible they send him to AAA, maybe want to save some service time for when they are trying to contend again. But my suspicion is he'll probably be up right away. So Josiah Gray, I think, becomes an immediate pickup. Would you rather have Josiah

Gray or someone like Joe Ross? I think Ross, but, you know, I don't really trust Joe Ross. Yeah. It's just, it's just hard to move on from him as consistent as he's been. How about Tyler McGill, or just I agree? Yeah, I don't know. I don't quite know what to make of McGill, because he keeps getting it done too, but the underlying numbers are a little less than I'd like them to be.

I think I'd lean gray there, actually. It's close, though. Yeah, I think I would go with McGill. It is close. I would drop David Price for Josiah Gray, take the upside shot there. I would drop Paddock at this point. I would drop Patrick Corbyn for Josiah Gray.

Take an upside shot. So someone towards the end of your bench, you can take that chance on Josiah Gray. The last thing I wanted to ask you, does this affect Juan Soto's overall value? I mean, he doesn't have Trey Turner to drive in anymore. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, usually when there's a star-level player like that,

and I was saying this about Jose Ramirez all off season, and other than the fact that he stopped stealing bases, I think it's proven true that when it's a high-end enough hitter. It really doesn't matter who the supporting cast is. He's going to get his numbers. I remember people used to freak out about Freddie Freeman back when the Braves were rebuilding, and he was always a stud.

So, yeah, I'm not that worried about Juan Soto. Yeah, that's a very good point about Freddie Freeman. All right, maybe we should just make this the full-lane podcast. Just keep going. now, right? Give everyone your sleepers, your two-star pitchers. I mean, I haven't looked at a single thing that's happened in baseball and actual games going on. Me too. There's so much, like, with just the trades. All right, well, let's sign off here so we could actually get into some of that stuff for Scott. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching fantasy baseball today.

We'll be back in, I don't know, an hour or two. Bye-bye.