Fantasy Baseball Today - Max Scherzer Still Has It! Week 22 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (8/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Brenton Doyle is back in the second half (3:15)! ... We had a pitcher's duel between Matthew Boyd and Max Scherzer (8:57). ... News (13:45): Michael King went back on the IL. ... The Dog of the Week goes to Heliot Ramos (16:50). ... Lourdes Gurriel had a big game in Coors (20:10). ... What do we make of Bailey Ober (23:12)? ... These hitters are on fire (32:39)! ... What else happened on Thursday (38:42)? ... SCOTTY DOESN'T KNOW (42:25)! ... Let's preview Week 22, looking at the schedule, two-start pitchers and sleeper hitters (53:47). ... We wrap up with bullpen updates and weekend streamers (1:03:06). 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

Happy Kokomo Friday and welcome in tough fantasy baseball today on August 15th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, we had a pitcher's duel out in Toronto. We'll preview week 22. And if we have time, I have Scott. He doesn't know ready to go. But I don't know. There's a lot of stuff on the rundown.

We'll see what happens. Is there seven-day, seven-game day. There's a lot of stuff on the rundown. Is this so? Is this true? Because there's not a lot in my notes here. You know what? I always just take more notes than I need to on days where there's not that many games going on.

So I don't know. Just trying to fill time. Also, what was with that intro, man? I got to figure that out. My voice felt like it was all over the place. Anywho. I didn't notice. I'll listen out for it.

All right. Well, I'm sure when I edit it later, I'm going to say, oh, God, that was terrible. But, eh, whatever. Let's jump in. All right, Scott. There wasn't too much to choose from for players. of the night, but you found yourself one anyway. Who is it?

Yeah, why are your notes so full? And okay, yeah, the player I chose, the player I chose is Brenton Doyle. I feel like we're going through a nature is healing phase here in the season. We've talked about it with Brian Reynolds. We've talked about it with Michael Harris. We need to talk about it with Brent Doyle because Brent Doyle was terrible, as I'm sure you're all aware, terrible in the first half. He hit 202.

His OPS was 5. Is this right? Five, it began with a 5. Hit 202 with a 576 OPS in the first half. Second half, going a lot better. 393 with four home runs a 1029 OPS. Obviously, that's a much smaller sample. His contribution on Thursday.

hit one of those four home runs went two for four overall. Much smaller sample in the second half, but looking more like the Bryn Doyle we expected. And, you know, looking at some of the under the hood stuff, it's kind of what you'd expect for a hitter who's performing better, right? Like, he's not hitting the ball harder necessarily, but he was hitting it hard enough all along. That wasn't the issue. The strikeout rate's a little down. The line drive rate is way up. The pull rate is up.

Fly ball rate's actually down, but, you know, getting line drives is, that's, on average, that's going to yield the best outcomes for a hitter. So I don't know that we can really take anything away from that for Doyle. He's hitting well in the second half, and the data suggests he should be hitting well in the second half, I think is all you can really take from that. But for me, it's just... It was hard to make sense of why he had gone so wrong in the first place. Now, I had Brinton Doyle as a bust pick coming into the season,

but his failures weren't in the way I thought. You know, I thought that strikeout rate would get really bloated. I thought maybe his home away splits. He was a bit too reliant on having awesome numbers at home, and that would present an issue. He still has the awesome numbers at home, you know? So I don't know. I guess I could say a lot more things that don't really draw us to a clear conclusion.

I guess mainly what I want to say here with Brent and Doyle is that it's kind of what makes analyzing baseball players frustrating. This is a frustrating sport to analyze in the way we do it on this show, where we're going over the events of the day, we're assessing recent performance, we're trying to make sense of what it means. we're not able to look at it from this 30,000 foot view that I talk about. And if we were, if we were, we would probably say for Brian Reynolds, for Michael Harris, for Brenton Doyle, they're still good players. And if you give them enough time, they're going to show it. Preferably more time would be like a month, but, you know, it's been four months.

And that is one of the things we often say that give a player infinite time and he will revert to his true outcomes. It's just you don't know how much time it's going to take. And for these three players, it's taken a really long time. I also think with Brendan Doyle, did we know exactly the player he was, right? Because we only had one full season of him being this awesome player for fantasy. So obviously there was some of that with him. The other two, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Something we don't talk about much is, you know, the human element behind the scenes, like what's going on in a player's life. Back in April, you know, Brenton Doyle suffered this tragic loss off the field. Unborn baby passed away for him and his wife. So obviously there's no way for us to quantify how much that affected him. I'm sure it did immensely. But, I mean, that could be a pretty good reason why he slumped for as long as he did. And maybe now just starting to pick things up.

So looking much better in the second half, he's 46% rostered. And there are a lot of outfielders that have emerged recently. I mean, obviously, like, Jacob Marcy's, you know, head and shoulders at the top right now, if you're looking for an outfielder to add. But, you know, in five outfieler leagues, three names that kind of stand out to me, Brenton Doyle, Isaac Collins,

and Dalton Varshow. How would you rank those three? I think the way you listed them off, Brent and Doyle, Isaac Collins, Dalton Varshow, maybe Collins moves ahead of Doyle fits a points league because Doyle's plate discipline is never going to be good. and Collins is pretty good.

But Doyle is the one of the three who's among my sleeper hitters for next week. I'm kind of amazed he's rostered in as little as 46% of leagues because I don't think Reynolds or Harris ever dropped below 90% roster ship, which gets back to the point you were making. They had a little more of a track record of greatness than Doyle did. But still, 46% is very low. Hey, when you have a first half OPS, first half OPS that starts with a, five's kind of mean. I think Michael Harris did too though, didn't he? He might have actually.

Yeah. Probably around there. Yeah. Fair point. Yeah. But I guess he is more proven. But yeah, fair point there on Brent Adela. So he's been dropped in a lot of leagues. Could be out there in some five outfielder leagues. I think it totally makes sense to look back at Brenton Doyle. We'll talk about the Rocky's schedule later on. But they have seven games next week, four of those in Cores Field. So looks like a good spot to get your Rockies bats back in the lineup. And like I do often here, my player of the night. It's actually two players of the night. It was a pitcher's duel in Toronto. It's time to do, do, do, do, do. Yeah, Matthew Boyd, up against Max Scherzer. I mentioned Scherzer up at the top. I mean, the old man still has it. Boyd here, seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts for him.

What's crazy is, like, they didn't get a ton of whiffs or anything. I don't know if it was just the early start in Toronto. Maybe the hitters were a little sluggish, whatever it might be. But Boyd's been pitching well all season. No doubt about that. He's gone seven to plus innings in five of his last eight outings. He's among the ERA leaders, 246 ERA, 102 whip for the season. But I want to focus a little bit more on Max Scherzer. Seven plus in this one, one run allowed. Only three strikeouts had nine whiffs on 78 pitches, which is still an okay ratio.

They both were super efficient. Under 80 pitches for both guys here, Matthew Boyd, and Max Scherzer. But this is now four straight quality starts. And during that stretch, 242 ERA, a 0.88 whip, right around a strikeout for inning for Max Scherzer. So look, we know he's not the pitcher of old, but we knew that there was talent in here. How much can his body hold up?

Well, they're throwing him out there, six, seven innings consistently here for Scherzer. You know, as long as he's healthy, I think, get him in your lineup, Scott. Yeah, for the most part, I agree with that. I think it would, how rostered is Max Scherzer at this point? He is 78%. So still could be out there in some of him.

And his upcoming matchup is against it looks like the Marlins. No, that's not right. Slugging Marlins. At the Pirates. At the Pirates. With no O'Neill Cruz. I mean, that's pretty much. That's even better.

Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I think I assumed he was rostered in more leagues than that. If he's 78% that meets the threshold for sleeper pitchers against Pirates, I got to get him in there. Is this breaking news on the podcast, Scott? Oh, it was so hard coming up with 10 pitchers. it was one of those weeks.

So, yeah, Scherzer will be a welcome addition to that. I do think he's closer to a matchup's play than not still. But we were pointing out even coming into this season that a lot of the underlying indicators for Scherzer, those dominance indicators we lean on so much, like swinging a strike rate, for instance, for me. They still showed a good pitcher there. It was just a matter of at 40 giving us no confidence he could remain healthy, having a chronic

thumb issue that he has admitted contributes to other health issues that he's had in recent years. But he manages to be gutting through it right now. And while you can't be confident that's going to last, he looks plenty usable in the meantime. All right. Just a reminder that you can listen to FBT and FBT Express on Spotify. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code. That will bring you right to the FBT Spotify feed. And big thanks to those watching live.

Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Not too much going on in terms of news so we can run pretty quickly through this. But Michael King was placed back on the IL with left knee inflammation. Just a very frustrating season all around for Michael King, who had the pinched nerve in his shoulder. Now he has this knee thing going on,

and he's in a contract year. So I don't know how much that will affect him. I think he's still a really talented pitcher, but obviously the season has raised some red flags in terms of the injuries. Aaron Nola will return from the IL to start Sunday against the Nationals. He's been out since mid-May with a sprained ankle and then a fractured rib.

So I think if he looks all right and that start against the Nationals, you're probably wheels up to get Nola back in your lineups next week. Chris Sale, unless you disagree. Nope. All right. Chris Sale will make his second rehab start at AAA on Sunday. Pablo Lopez will throw two innings of live batting practice on Friday.

He's been out since early June with a right shoulder strain. Jordan Lawler was activated from the IL at AAA. We'll see how many games he actually plays down there before the D-backs decide to call him up. But I'd guess that we're going to see Jordan Lawler pretty soon. Yeah. Now, Blaze Alexander has gotten hot. Yeah. Say he's blazing.

Ah. But he's no Jordan Lawler. Like they've finally created a path for Jordan Lawler. It's what he's been missing in the three years since he was first called up is an actual job to call his own. And so I think once he gets rolling at AAA, they'll be content to slide Blaze Alexander back into a utility role because I doubt they see him as a full time or long term. they can shuffle things around here a little bit. Adrian Del Castillo is their DH right now. He's a young player.

I'm sure they want to see what he can do for the future, but he's performing pretty poorly, so there are ways for them to fit both guys in the lineup if they want to with Jordan Lawler and Blaze Alexander. Jacob Wilson will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday. The Nationals designated Nathaniel Lowe for assignment when they activated Dylan Cruz from the IL. Low was hitting just

Faniel Lowe. I'm saying that right, right? It's just that always confuses me the lows, the Lows. He was hitting just 216 but did have 16 home runs this season. My guess is that he'll latch on somewhere just not sure where.

Brandon Lough is the only one I've ever known who was a Lowe. Right. Yeah. Most of the time There's Louns County in Georgia, which looks like it should be loaned. or Lonez, but it's Louns. Oh, I think I know what you're talking about.

Yeah. Weird spelling there. Yeah. Yeah. But no, every LOWE I've known other than Brandon LOW is low. And the last news item here, Miguel Amaya was placed back on the aisle with a sprained left ankle, which is, you know, good news for Carson Kelly, who should continue to get most of the playing time there with the Cubs. I want to focus on a hitter here.

Giants outfielder Elliot Ramos. So far this week, he's gone 0 for 13 with four strikeouts. But Scott, did you realize he has not homered since July 5th? That was a long time ago. He actually is hitting a little bit better here in the second half. You know, struggled mightily in July. But in the second half, he's hitting 289, just no slug. There's only three extra base hits, all doubles, still hitting the ball hard during that

stretch, but right now the swing is just not optimized for power, which is why he hasn't hit home runs since July 5th, but still 89% rostered. I think he's a solid player. Is he still a must roster player? What do you think about Elliot Ramos of the Giants? I'm not sure I ever would have called him a must roster player in points leagues. I realized at one point the season he was so hot that he probably was rostered in every league, but he just doesn't have the sort of skill set that I think lends itself to a top 36 finish in that format. And I'm not sure every top 36 outfielder is must roster in a three outfifield to league anyway, because, you know, there's, there are going to be, you know, like the 42nd

probably isn't that much worse than the 34th. So there's going to be some interchangeability there. Eli Ramos fits this description that I was talking about, I think it was just yesterday, of the poor plate discipline hitter who when things go wrong for him, he's just a goose egg for you, basically, because he's not getting on base at all.

And it's really hard to stick with them during these slumps. It is the other side of the coin when they're very hot and hitting home runs and like everybody's like, this is the greatest guy ever, which I know there was a period like that for Ramos this year. But we're seeing the other side of the coin now, and it's painful. I agree. He's a starting caliber outfielder in the majors.

He has better power than the average hitter. But how functional is he in fantasy? I think he's like a number four outfielder in fantasy. see. And there will be times when he looks more like a number two, but there are times when he looks unusable. And so the mean is a number four outfielder. And, you know, if you can find somebody hotter in the meantime, I think that's totally fine. And I feel like this happened last year, too. He got off to a great start and then kind of faded in the second half of the season. So kind of becoming a consistent thing here for Elliot Ramos. Looking at his stack has pace,

he's also a terrible defender, man. He is in the first person. percentile in outs above average at season, minus nine there in terms of the range. So they can't throw them at TH to have Raphael Devers at T.H. So that's problem for the first base. They haven't called up Bryce Eldridge yet. That's fair. I would say

hold Elliot Ramos in five outfielder leagues, but probably not in three outfielder leagues. Yes. A couple of their waiver wire hitters here, Scott. Two in shallower leagues. Big game for Lordeus Guerriel in Corse Field, one for four with a sock and a his 15th home run, 10th steel.

He's just kind of been even more mid than usual. I mean, the OPS is right at 700. You know, he's 73% rostered, solid in a points league, like 2.6 fantasy points per game, but not really a difference maker, you know? I mean, you might remember that the Diamondbacks had the second best matchups, hitter matchups coming into this week.

And so Gueriel was a sleeper hitter. and I think that's his role. Like he's been among those 10 sleeper hitters probably more than any other hitter this year because he's not good enough to graduate from the list, but he is good enough that if the matchups are right, I'm probably going to recommend him. So he's kind of stuck in that purgatory

and shows no signs of breaking free of it. Welcome back to Dylan Cruz, who went one for three with a walk in his 12th stolen base. He was batting second in this game for the Nationals. 68% rostered. We spoke about him yesterday. Don't need to add him in three outfielder leagues yet, but he has the upside to kind of work his way into that conversation.

So we'll see what happens the next couple of weeks for Dylan Cruz. And one deeper league name, someone we've brought up a bunch recently, Ryan Moutcastle, stealing bases all of a sudden? What's going on? One for three with two steals here? He also has a two home runs since coming back. That's more of what we're expecting from Ryan Moucassel. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he has a solid end to the season.

He was still hitting the ball hard this year. Had some really bad luck. 19% rostered. Yeah, corner infielder somewhere. I think that could work. Yeah, I've held steady in my views on Mountcastle when we did a second half sleepers breakouts bust segment. I had him as one of my second half sleepers. The complication is going to be when Samuel Bessio comes up, which could happen as soon as this weekend, once we're inside.

of 45 days left in the season. And the only positions Bessio can play, first base D.H. Catcher, well, those are occupied by Adley Rushman, Ryan Moucassel, and Kobe Mayo. So I imagine Bessio would fill in some for all three. But, you know, if Mountcastle doesn't take off, he could find himself at the bottom of that pecking order.

right now I would assume mayo's at the bottom of it because he's just he's homered I know he homered earlier I guess it was last week at this point it hasn't been that recent but a lot of offers a lot of offers in the game log there for Kobe Mayo and while I'm sure they want to evaluate his long-term outlook given that it's the last year for the Orioles anyway if Mountcastle is outperforming and I imagine he'll keep playing how are we feeling about Bailey Ober he has made three starts since returning and he was just okay against the tigers here five and a third innings three runs allowed four strikeouts of zero walks but had 14 whiffs on 89 pitches so that seems really encouraging three starts since returning a 441 ERA but a 0.98 whip 67% rostered and he gets the

athletics next week where are we at on bailey ober in a weird place i would say this start itself It was hard to know what to make of it because it was a high ERA, three and runs in five and a third. It was a low whip, four base runners in five and a third. It was a low strikeout rate, four strikeouts in five and a third. It was a great swinging strike rate,

14 on 89 pitches. I think probably of all the data points for Bailey overstart against the Tigers, the most revealing one, was that he averaged on his fast ball just 90.3 miles per hour. So the gains from his first two starts off the IL, and I kept pointing out,

hey, looks like the fastball. It's back to where it was previous years, not dealing with the loss that we'd seen for Bailey Ober early this year. Well, that wasn't true for this third start. And it's not what you want to see. So I think he deserves to be rostered. I think there have been enough positive signs

since returning from the IL that I want Bailey Ober on my roster, but I'd be very reluctant to use them still because there are a lot of conflicting data points. Would you rather roster Bailey Ober over like the Jacob Lopez's and Zebi Matthews, kind of the names we've been talking about a lot lately, Christian Javier? I would rather roster him over Javier.

Jacob Lopez and and who was the other one? Zeby Matthews. Jacob Lopez and Zebby Matthews, I mean, they've shown big strikeout potential. So like the upside is, is there for them.

And at this point, you got to, you got to think Bailey Ober has just as much downside risk. So yeah, I'd say so, Lopez and especially since Lopez and Zebby Matthews

are among my sleeper pitchers for this upcoming week. Yeah, yeah, I agree totally. I would put Lopez and Zebby at the top of that list, then Ober,

then Christian Javier. Don't think we have any interest in these waiver wire pitchers, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you feel differently, Scott. Maybe you love Tomoyuki Sugano. Do you? I don't know. Solid outing here against the Mariners 5 and a third with one run. Only two strikeouts here, but last four starts.

He's been pitching better. 231 ERA. 099 whip during that stretch. Eduardo Rodriguez, I mean, if you can figure out an ERA, just let me know where the Crystal Ball is because last time out, he gets the Rockies in Arizona, gets bombed. This time he gets the Rockies in Corse Field, and he has maybe his best start of the season. Seven innings, one run, six strikeouts here, 10 whiffs on 93 pitches, gets the Guardians next week. Brad Lord continues to pitch well this time against the Phillies, six innings, two runs, three strikeouts,

five starts since rejoining the rotation, 277 ERA and a 115 whip, and Bryce Elder from your Atlanta Bravescott. Great start out of nowhere at the New York Mets. Seven innings, three runs, two of those earned with six strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 87 pitches through his forcing fastball a bunch more. Like, I don't know what's that about it. Do any of these names matter? Elder, Lord, Erod, and Sugano. Probably not, but there are a few things I want to point out with each.

So Bryce Elder, he has good starts out of nowhere on occasion. and because that's true, because it's happened on occasion over the years. I think we know to ignore it, regardless of whatever pitch changes Bryce Elders made. Bradlord got a really good ground ball rate, 50%. So he could be useful in like a Michael McGreevy sort of way, which I think for most leagues means not that useful,

but he'll show up on the streamer pitcher segment sometimes. Brad Lord. Tomoyuki Sagano, you say it's a four-start stretch. Well, we've seen a jump in velocity for Sugano over those four starts. Most of his pitches up one and a half miles per hour in this start. It's been about that for this four-start stretch. So I guess from that perspective, it's not surprising he's found more success. It's still not a great strikeout rate.

It's a better strike-out rate because the strike-out rate was so awful before. It's still not a very good strike-out rate. and I still think Sugano is pretty fringy because of that. But, you know, he's beginning to verge on interesting again. Not quite there, but he's verging on it. And then Eduardo Rodriguez. So great start in Colorado. So bad lineup, but a venue that's been playing very hitter-friendly of late, especially.

Previous six starts for Eduardo Rodriguez, a 6907 ERA, a 197 whip. So nothing I say right now. is meant to suggest you should use Eduardo Rodriguez. Way too risky. But he did something kind of interesting here. So he threw 61% fastballs, four seamers, 61% of the time. Normally that's 44% of the time.

But more than that, I think the reason he was leaning on that four seamer so much is because it was a very different four seamer. It had four less inches of vertical break. Four. I mean, two is a little. lot. This had four or less.

And that put it really on the bottom of the scales as far as four seam fastballs go, their induced vertical break. Normally, a good fastball has a high induced vertical break. Those are the fastballs that are touted the most. But the opposite end of the spectrum can work, too, as we've talked about with Jacob Lopez. Really, it's just a fastball that moves in a way, hitters are. aren't accustomed to that has a shape hitters aren't familiar with because obviously it's a fastball they have so little reaction time so if it if it's dropping quicker or dropping slower

than they're used to seeing they're very likely to miss it in this case dropping quicker lower induced vertical break for edwarda rodriguez it might work if it's something he can stick with big if because like i said a 70 r in his last six starts but something to keep an eye on for Eduardo Rodriguez, who of course has had success in the past. I wonder how much of that, because the same thing happened with his cutter here, at four or less inches of IVB. How much of that is just Corse Field, right? I don't know how.

That's a good point. Good point. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good point. I think the next start, the data from the next start, will have a lot to say about that too. All right. I honestly don't know. It makes sense to me logically that thinner air would cause the ball to lose carry faster, but I don't know for sure if that's the case.

All right, let's take our final break. When we return, a couple hitters here, strong runs just continuing. These guys are just all on a tear. We'll talk about those. Maybe get to Scott Diazano. I don't know, we're making pretty good time. We'll probably get to it. We'll do all that.

I feel like I've been blabbing a lot. We'll do all that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Runs continuing for these four hitters. Julio Rodriguez hit another home run over his last 29 games. Hitting 305 with 13 homers, eight steals, and an OPS over a thousand. Vlad Jr., another home run. Big second half, 375, eight home runs, 22 runs, 21 RBI, 1146 OPS.

Michael Harris, three more hits, another seal. And after the break, hitting 381, 7 homers, 2 steals, 11.03 OPS. and Xavier Edwards, I mean, this, the batting average has been going on for a while, but now he's actually starting to run a lot more, which is great. Two for four with his 23rd steel. Since June 1st, batting 337 with two homers.

All right, whatever. But, I mean, it's still more than you would expect probably. 41 runs scored and 12 steals. So anything to add on these four, man, they are, they are alive. No, I mean, it's validating. I feel validated here. I think we all feel validated about Julio Rodriguez because at the All-Star break,

we did a first two-round redraft for the second half. We said, yes, Julio Rodriguez belongs there. We were called Madman. We haven't been keeping up with the times. But sure enough, Julio Rodriguez, looking like Julio Rodriguez again. Of course, I think all of our faith was shaken on Michael Harris, but I think the consistent method,

was he's better than this. Like, obviously he's unusable right now, but he didn't fake what he did for his first three years. And so it's encouraging to see. I don't think any of us really knew changing the position of his hands was the fix, but there was some fix in there. And Michael Harris seems to have found it. And yeah, Xavier Edwards, I was hopeful that with the increase in batting average,

eventually he'd start running more, and that seems to be happening. So it's all looking good. Six steals in the past eight games, by the way, for Xavier Edwards. What about Ozzy Albies? He has looked better. He's still not amazing in the second half, but I hit a home run here, and second half numbers, 253, three homers, 18 RBI, four steals, 728 OPS.

It's better. It's still not the Ozzy Albies we know and love. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough one because part of it might be environment related, the fact the ball's not caring as well this year. And we knew from past years like that that it could greatly impact Albi's.

So maybe it's as simple as that. But you would think it would also have a similar impact on Jose Altuvae and Marcus Simeon, who also produced power despite pretty weak exit velocities. And they have both bounced back to some degree. I know Simeon's cooled off again, but he had a stretch there where he was looking like normal Marcus Simeon. I was kind of expecting a stretch like that for Albies at some point. The home run he hit was a wall scraper 99.2 miles per hour.

It only would have gone out in eight of the 30 ballparks. So it wasn't that impressive of a shot. He's so young that he's so much younger than out. Tuvae and Marcus Simeon that he's kind of the one you want to bet on the most of that group. But I don't know. I don't know what the future is for him. Just even outside of fantasy, I know there have been a lot of discussions within like Braves media of,

oh, do the Braves, non-tender him? On Tinder, wow. He signed like this crazy team-friendly deal where he's only going to make like $7 million next year. Now, I think that's crazy. I think he's going to be back because it's only $7 million. And even if he ends up on your bench for $7 million, that's something you could live with.

You've got to take the shot on him bouncing back. But the fact that it's even in the conversation, people really don't know what to make of Ozzy Albies, myself included. It's not as clear cut of a situation as Michael Harris even, who, again, I think we all felt confident would bounce back eventually. Yeah, I think what you and Chris have brought up a lot about in the years where the ball isn't traveling, as well. Those have been the down years for Ozzie. I think he also kind of fits the mold of,

you know, these plate discipline hitters that we've talked about too. He's a very aggressive hitter. He chases a lot of the strike zone. Like, you know, he has been shrieky in the past too. It's just, man, this streak has, this bad streak has been going on for a while now. Like last year, he was pretty bad as well. He also just isn't, he isn't playing well this season. I mean, you look at his quality of contact is down. His barrel rate is terrible. Barrel rate is terrible. A bunch of pop-ups the last two years.

He just seems off, man. I don't know. Yeah, you make a good point about the barrel rate because that is, that is a combination of both exit velocity and launch ankle, right?

Yeah. It's like optimal for power, basically optimal contact for power. Right. So the way the ball is carrying would not change barrel rate. So it isn't just that. He's not squaring up the ball

as much as he usually does. And so in a way, that's encouraging. Like, he has some control over how the rest of this season, next season turns out. So that's a good point to bring up. Just to use the correct terminology, I don't think it would be non-tendering. It would be not picking up the team option, the $7 million team option. And instead doing, looks to me, like a $4 million buyout. So it wouldn't even be $7 million they're saving.

It would be $3 million they're saving. I'm pretty sure, unless they trade them, I'm pretty sure Ozzy Alves is going to be the brave starting second basement again next year. Some leftovers here from Thursday's action. Lindor had a huge game, three for four with a sock and a shoe. His 22nd home run, his 19th steal. He is getting back on track here in August. Brutal June and July,

likely because he suffered that fractured toe that he's been playing with. So it looks like he might be getting back on track. Riley Green hit his 28th home run. And the strikeout rate has improved. Over his last 14 games, he's down to 26%. So I think it was around 40% for a lot of July. So that's turned around for Riley Green. That's good news for him.

And Jose Ramirez, excuse me, just will not stop running. Three for four with two more steals. He is up to 35. His career high was last year. 41. I feel pretty good. He's going to beat that. We're going to get a new career high here for J-RAM.

Yeah, that's pretty good. Pretty impressive. Wasn't last year itself a career high, 41? Yeah. Yeah. Now, we know the stolen base environment has changed a lot in the last three years, so maybe in that respect, it's not so surprising. But, you know, you got a hitter who's been around forever in his 30s.

He keeps setting new highs and stolen bases. It's noteworthy. Yeah, it's unprecedented. We don't really see guys start to run more once they get into their 30s. Some pitching leftovers here, Jesus Lazzardo, was cruising and then came out for the seventh. He loaded the bases with no outs, and that pretty much ruined his line. It could have been much better, but six plus innings here, three runs, seven strikeouts,

had 17 whiffs on at 97 pitches, had everything working here. Kodi Senga, much better in this one against the Braves. Five and two thirds, two runs, seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 93 pitches through 66% of his pitches for strikes. That is the key for Kodi Senga. Terrick Scubel turned in a quality start at the twins, seven innings three runs with only three strikeouts. So we'll pay attention there. And one bad one,

Edward Cabrera, it turns out he is human after all. Roughed up by the Guardians, gave up five runs over five and a third, but still had 17 whiffs on 95 pitches. Anything to add on this group? So that four-start stretch for Lazardo 252 ERA, 0.92 whip, I think he's fine.

I think you can use them. regardless of matchups, wouldn't go as far to call him a must start, but he's pretty close. Senga had been so bad since returning from the IEL in his five starts prior to this one. It was 7.1 walks per nine.

Only once did he even go five innings in those five starts. He was looking unusable. And I'm, no, it was good this time. Not quite a quality start because he only went five and two thirds, but the control was much better, 66% strikes.

But he was so bad in the previous five, I'm not sure it's enough to convince me to use him again. I don't know that he's much roster even, frankly, for the shallower leagues I'm talking about, but does still have a low ERA on the year, so that'll probably lead people to hold on to him. And did you mention Edward Cabrera yet? Yes.

Yeah. you know, this was his third, just his third bad start, I would say, in that dominant 14 start stretch. So I think we can give him a pass for this one. All right. Do we have time? What do you think, Scott?

Do we have time for little Scott? He doesn't know. 15 minutes left. We got to do the preview still. All right. What are we going to do? Sleep. All right.

Let's do it. Scottie doesn't know Oh Scottie doesn't know Let's do an abbreviated version I have five players here What we'll do instead We'll do three

We'll do three players here For Scotty doesn't know And now I'm scrolling through To figure out which three I want to do Sometimes the editing process Can take longer than just doing it all Yeah All right I am the fourth best outfielder

In CBS head to head points leagues Over the last 28 days Okay so this can only be one guy Yes. Some of your clothes can be a bunch of different guys. This can only be one guy. I'm getting better. I'm getting better.

Fourth best in points league's 28 days, outfielder. Is it Isaac Collins? Scottie doesn't know. Oh, Scottie doesn't know. The answer you were looking for is Taylor Ward. During that stretch, 281 batting average, eight home runs, 25 RBI, and an OPS just over 1,000. On the season, he is up to 29 homers with 90 RBI,

and I don't know that it's a complete fluke because he's hitting more fly balls this year, and he is a 15% barrel rate. So, I mean, that is, that's an elite mark. But you know how I feel about barrel rate. Like, it is more of a... it's more of a symptom than a cause. But if you maintain it for the entire season up to this point,

that should count for something. Except when it's that. When it's that extreme. So my take on Taylor Ward, and I laughed when you brought him up because I was just arguing with somebody about this on Twitter, the age-old argument of what our rankings supposed to represent came up again. It's not an age-old argument.

For some reason, it's just become an argument. In recent years, people understood what rest of season rankings meant, but now a certain contingent of people wants them just to reflect what's been going on recently. When I look at Ward's profile, everything looks the same as always, except for the number of home runs he has. And I guess barrel rate. But again, I consider that more of a symptom than a cause. Like the expected stats, pretty much where they always are. Exit velocity is where they always are. Play discipline.

if anything, it's a little worse. And so I think he's the same guy. I think he's just had a home run windfall, which happens sometimes. And it can end at any time. Just because it's happened for four months doesn't mean the final two months, less than two months at this point.

Like home runs aren't an even distribution over the course of the season. So I have him 33rd among outfielders rest of season. He's, you know, obviously must roster probably should be starting everywhere, even the shallower leagues. But 33rd isn't that far ahead of 45 in my mind. And so I think it's very likely he doesn't get to 35 home runs, even though it seems like a slam dunk to people right now. All right. In fact, I'll take the under.

34 and a half over under I'll take the under for Taylor Ward how's that how's that for some decisiveness I'm taking the over so what are we what are we betting on Scott what does the winner get you put stakes on it

I never want to do it all right I set you peeped cereal for your birthday this year so the winner gets a cereal box of their choosing okay fair enough I can I can live with those terms let's go Taylor Ward

unless you're gonna like have me import some like $30 cereal or something. No, make it 50. We're going to find the best cereal ever. All right, next up. In 40 games leading up to the All-Star break, I hit 331 with

12 homers, six steals, and a 1024 OPS. In 24 games after the break, I'm hitting 2.13 with zero homers, five steals, and a 522 OPS. So it's been great. It was great

before the break, he was bad after the break. Is he a base stealer? Does you mention steals in there? Yeah, six steals in 40 games before, five steals since. So he's still right. His base dealer. Don't know the position.

It's been bad news. Bad news. Base dealer. I'm going to say... Is it Fernando Tatis? The answer here is Sedan Rafael, who, remember he, He was blazing hot going into the break.

But this just kind of feeds into a lot of what we've been talking about again is plate discipline. I mean, he chases more than almost anybody in baseball. Now he has made strides this year. I want to give him credit. He's lowered the strikeout rate. The zone contact has improved. The swinging strike rate has improved as well. But he is still amongst the most aggressive hitters in the game.

So he's going to be prone to being a very streaky player. I say all this to remind you that he's... still 89% rostered, and I think that should be the case, because I think we could see another stretch where Raphaelah really heats up once again. Yeah, he's part of that contingent, not to harp on it, but bad plate discipline guys, it really hurts when they're not going well, and it's really hurting with him right now. I don't know that he needs to be quite 89%. I mean, is he that much better than Elliot Ramos in theory? I don't know. In Roto, For sure.

Well, I guess they're both kind of roto players. But yeah, Raphaelah just the power speed. He brings the speed. But I think it points league specifically if you want to start. If you don't want to just bench Raphael, if you want to drop them for a more startable player, I think that's okay. I don't think the ceiling is so high that you have to devote a roster spot to him

in those shallower leagues. Yeah. In head-ted categories or any three outfieler category leagues, I would definitely hold on to Raphael because, again, He can heat up and we saw him go on a crazy binge right before the break. And it wouldn't surprise me if we get an awesome final month here from Sadan Rafael. All right, last one. Over my last 30 games, I am hitting 204 with one homer, three steals, and a 608 OPS.

And you know what, Scott? I'm feeling nice. I'll give you a bonus clue. Oh. I was drafted in the first two rounds this year. Drafted in the first two rounds. Last 30 games, 204, one homer, three, six. steals 608 OPS.

In a 12 team league, he was drafted in the first two rounds. Yes. Now, was he drafted in the first round or the second round? That I won't tell you. He could just be a first round hitter. Yeah, because there's one name who comes to mind, but I think he was drafted in the third round, not the second. First rounder, could it be, this is a non-base stealer, right?

Is it Bryce Harper? Scott, he doesn't know. I'm actually not sure if he's been cold or not. So all you had to do, Scott, was think back to earlier tonight when you were arguing with people on Twitter because the answer is Kyle Tucker, who... During that stretch, the last 30 games, mentioned the numbers. I was arguing with people about Tucker.

I was arguing with people about Ward. His average eggs of velocity during this stretch, Kyle Tucker, 88.3, just two barrels. So obviously it's not going well. still more walks than strikeout, so the plate discipline is not a problem there. He had a finger injury back in early June, but it clearly didn't affect his June. He still had a fantastic June, but he had a really bad July that's carried over here into August. I do just want to point out, the Cubs as a team are struggling, and sometimes this happens within a baseball season.

It can almost be contagious. Again, that's like not quantifiable. I know we always bring up stats to back up our takes, but sometimes a whole team just goes cold at once. Like, we just spoke about PCA. Say a Suzuki's been cold. Danesby Swanson has mostly been cold. Like, yeah, Kyle Tucker is cold right now. But, I mean, for the people that are giving you grief, like,

ranking him as a top five outfield there, what are you going to do? Are you going to bench Kyle Tucker and miss out on the week that he goes out and hits three homers with three seals? Like, come on, man. Sorry, I had to get that off much as. Sometimes I feel like we get a little too. This guy was giving me a hard time on Twitter about this,

and most people listening don't care what's happening. on Twitter. I mean, people who invest a lot of their time in Twitter like to argue about stupid stuff. So, of course, you're going to get in stupid arguments on Twitter, and maybe we don't need to pay that much of attention to it. Maybe we don't need to make the show start later because we're busy arguing with people on Twitter, which is kind of what happened tonight. So sorry about that. Yeah, I mean, Kyle Tucker is a stud, obviously. And this is why, to harp on this point, 30,000 foot view is what you should be taking when you're analyzing baseball. Because it looks, Kyle Tucker looks a lot better there from 30,000 feet up than if you're, you know, on ground level with them right now.

And he's had a miserable six-week stretch. Anybody can have a miserable six-week stretch. It's kind of normal. It's not, it's kind of normal. It's not, it's not like everybody will have a six week stretch this bad, but it shouldn't really raise that much alarm when it happens. So, I don't know, just ignore it. Like, honestly, like, I can't tell you exactly what's wrong

and exactly what's going to make it go right. But I know it's, it's not so abnormal. that we should be losing faith in Kyle Tucker of all players. It's really as simple as that. Hey man, if there are people out there that know exactly when to time up benching their first round pick for whoever the hot Jacob Marcy doing something like that, all the power to you. But I will tell you that over a long period of time, that is going to burn you more than it's going to work for you. So, again, like I have Kyle Tucker in multiple leagues.

I'm not benching him. I thought it was worth bringing up because obviously he's a first round. on pick and he's been struggling for a while. Like there's no doubt about that. So, but I, yeah, we still have a bunch of faith, obviously, in Kyle's soccer and the Cubs. Like, they're, they're too talented to be this bad for this long. So I would bet on the Cubs getting things back on track here.

Let's wrap up, Scott, with our week 22 preview. And we will begin with the schedule, which is a little bit all over the place. We have a team with five games, two teams with eight games. So it's a little wonky for next week. That one team with five games is the race. We have 20 teams with six games. Seven teams with seven games. The Rockies, Astros, Royals, Dodgers, Padres, Giants, and Rangers.

And two teams with eight games, the Cubs and the Brewers. As I mentioned earlier with the Rockies, they have seven games next week, four at home against the Dodgers, and three on the road against the pirates. Starters sit these two start pitchers for next week. good old Jackie boy Jack Flaherty against the Astros and the Royals We do this every week with a couple pitchers and there are a couple pitchers this week too

but they frustrated us for some length of time and so we want to be able to say well you got to bench them you got to bench them it's been too frustrating they're doing too much damage and then we look at the other two start options and

I kind of just want to start check Flaherty like obviously the strikeouts have remained high he's had a number of good starts in recent terms too and so if you're going to play the volume game getting two starts instead of one you know you're taking on a little risk a little extra risk just by nature of that process

and I think the upside in Flaherty's case is worth it Not saying he's must start, but he's probably should be started in most leagues. Probably using him in a points league. I think you have to be a little bit pick and choosy at this time of year in Roto. If you have close categories in terms of ratios, you know, maybe you sit a Jack Flaherty because he has that blowout potential. If you need strikeouts, then yeah, throw him out there. I also think it's worth mentioning his home road splits at home this year. 379 ERA on the road.

He's up over six. And both of those starts are at home next week for Jack Flaherty. And I'll mention too, this happens to be a week where there are a lot of must-start two-star pitchers. Probably none of whom we're going to mention in this segment. But if you look at my two-star pitcher rankings, they're 15 as of right now. Could change over the weekend, but 15. That's a lot. That's like twice as many as usual.

So if you happen to have two or three of those guys, that makes it less likely that you're going to use Flaherty, even though Flaherty is still tiered pretty high among the two. star pitchers. Somebody who is not must start anymore is Spencer Shredder and he gets the White Sox and the Mets the team that just let them up for eight runs. Yeah, but he's right behind Flaherty and my two star pitcher

rankings for basically all the same reasons. Yeah, they are pretty similar pitchers at this point. Scott, are they Charzards? Are Jack Flaredes Shreder Charzard's at this point? They are... It kind of feels that way. They are certainly looking like

Charzard. They don't know what the Pokemon analogy would be for a Charzard adjacent pitcher who's kind of better than Charzard, but I don't know. Is there, there's probably some kind of Pokemon that mimics other Pokemon's? Well, Scott, I got, I got, I don't think you put an S at the end of Pokemon. I was going to say the plural of Pokemon is Pokemon. But, um, see, these are the things that I know because I'm a Pokemon poser. I've never watched movies in my life, but obviously I've played every Pokemon game. Yeah, there is a Pokemon called Ditto, where he can just transform

into any other Pokemon, so yeah. So, I don't know the whole lore of Ditto to know if that's a great analogy, but it's kind of what I think. All right, well, let's continue on. Gavin Williams is at the D-backs and at the Rangers. That is

lower than Flaherty and Strider in my rankings, but still in that tier where most people are going to do it. Zach Allen gets the Guardians and the Reds, both at home. He is in a lower tier. He's in the points league only tier, but that means I'd consider doing it in a points league.

All right. And Seth Lugo gets the Rangers and at the Tigers. He has been struggling. Yeah, he has. One of those matches is good, at least, and the Tigers haven't been quite their usual selves offensively. So I think at points leagues for the added volume. I'd still start Lugo. Which two-star pitchers are you looking to add?

and stream for next week. So it's not a great selection, in part because so much of the two-start options are so high-end. They obviously don't qualify for this list. But at the top of the list is Jacob Lopez coming off two awesome starts with a ton of strikeouts. Still pretty risky, I think overall could still be a gimmick, but with each good start, he raises my confidence

and he gets the twins who are pretty terrible at this point. especially against left-handers. I think that's right. I'm forgetting now exactly, but I think that's right. And then the Mariners is his other matchup, which isn't so bad either. Then Michael Waka gets the Rangers and the Tigers,

and he's been pretty reliable of late. Jack Leiter has been not so bad either, and he's got two great matchups, Royals and Guardians. Brady Singer, he's a, Kind of a Charzard, but without the high-end outcomes, he just, he'll give you a strong seven-inning start, or he'll get throttled. But matchups aren't so bad this week, Angels and Diamondbacks.

I do also much lower on the sleeper pitcher list behind all the one-start options. Spencer Ergettys here, he gets the Tigers and the Orioles, but it feels very risky. And I also had Dustin May against the Orioles and Yankees, though I think I'm going to bump him from the list for a one-start, Max Scherzer. against the pirates. All right. Who are the other one-star streamers for next week? Zebby Matthews gets the White Sox. So that feels like a pretty easy call.

Jose Cantana gets the Giants. That's the team that I was thinking of against lefties. They are dead last and OPS. So I think it's a fine time to use Kentana. Christian Javier at Baltimore. Don't feel great about this, considering we've just seen the one start from. And he'll make another one this weekend,

and it may change my mind. or it may fortify this decision to stream Javier against the Orioles. We'll just have to wait and see. But there were some good signs in that first start back from the IL. And finally, Hurston Waldrop coming off back-to-back good starts for the Braves. He gets the White Sox, so a favorable matchup there. And hopefully that splitter and sinker. I think it's a sinker he's been using more than a four-seamer.

It's kind of helped him take a step forward this year. Let's slide over to the hitters, the best matchup. the Dodgers, Rockies, Twins, Reds, and Marlins, the worst hitter matchups, athletics, Ray's, Mariners, Padres, and Giants. Who are your sleeper hitters for Week 22? So I actually like this list more. Most teams' matchups are pretty middling.

The good matchups don't stand out as much as they usually do. The bad matchups don't stand out as much as they usually do. So I was looking more at hot hitters. who have good splits and are available enough to mention here. And that's mostly what this list features. Jacob Marcy is, of course, at the top, especially since the Marlins have the fifth best hitter matchups. Matt Shaw is on one of the two teams playing eight games this week.

So even though, like, it's tough pitchers for both the Cubs and the Brewers, tough opponents, but eight games, it's hard to know exactly how to balance those two. but matchall's been so great in the second half and we talked about all the reasons why yesterday. So I think I like them for this week. Andrew Vaughn. Of course, he's been hot for a while now. Sal Freelick has been great.

All those guys have eight games and I think are worth using. Brent and Doyle, we talked about earlier in the show. The Rockies have the second best hitter matchups with four of their games coming at home. I think it's a fine time to use him. Noel V. Marte has been great and the Reds have the fourth best hitter matchups.

Jerks and ProFar. It's been great. Only one list. lefty on the schedule for the Braves. His numbers are especially good against righte, as a switch hitter and their leadoff hitter. Right now with Acuna hurt, though, Coonia's supposed to come back this weekend.

But even when Acuna was last healthy, he was hitting third and ProFar first. So hopefully ProFar won't remain the leadoff man for his sake. Jordan Beck also taking advantage of those good matchups for the Rockies, Luke Keishel with the twins having the third best matchups. And finally, Coulson Montgomery. Let's hope he can keep that power binge going a little. longer. I think his chances are improved by all six of the pitchers on tap for the

White Sox being right-handed throwers, Montgomery, of course, a left-handed hitter and has done basically nothing against left-handed pitchers. All right, let's wrap up with some boltpins here for the Orioles. Keegan Aiken got the seventh inning with a three-run lead facing seven, eight, nine in the Mariners lineup. He allowed two base runners but got out of it. Lefty Dietrich ends. got the ninth with a three-run lead. He allowed a run, but picked up his first save of the season. Yaneer Canoe threw 12 pitches on Wednesday,

but he wasn't good in that one, so they probably just didn't want to go back to him. Orioles bullpen feels pretty messy, not great, and obviously a pretty bad team, so kind of feels like a stay-away. For the Blue Jays, Jeff Hoffman got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed a hit, but struck out three for his 27th save.

For the Braves, Reisel-Eglacius also got the ninth with a one-run lead. Shruck out one for his 17th and for the Nationals, Jose Ferrer got the eighth with a one-run lead facing three, four, and five in the Phillies lineup.

Two lefties, he picked up the hold and then Cole Henry got the ninth he allowed a hit, but picked up the save here. So it doesn't look like Ferrer is just the go-to-closer, Scott. Clearly, if there's lefties in the eighth, they'll go to him or not, then he'll get the ninth.

I wonder how much of it was lefties and how much of it was three, four, five that he was facing. Probably a combo of both, yeah, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. All right. To stream or not stream on Friday. And yep, we are back here again to this group.

I did add one to the list. Herston Waldrop is at the Guardians, but all of a sudden they are, they are raking right now. Colin Ray gets the pirates, Nick Martinez against the Brewers, Aaron Savali at the Royals, Charlie Morton against the twins, Jack Perkins against the Angels, and that is it. The Guardians did score nine runs on Thursday, but I noticed they had just one extra base hit. And I think Jose Ramirez was the only one with multiple hits, I think.

Let me double check that. The point is, nah, Austin Hedges actually had two hits. Of all people, he's bad at 1.43. Yeah, I don't think I'd be scared away from using Hurston Waldrop at the Guardians. I might be scared away from using Hurston Waldrop, period. but I think among this bad list of pitchers that you're showing me, he is my second favorite behind Aaron Savali at the Royals. And I will go with, I think Waldrop is fine.

I also kind of like Jack Perkins against the Angels. On Saturday, there are lots of names here. Are any of them good? I don't know. I'm scrolling up and down. Verlander gets the raise. Zebby Matthew gets the Tigers, so that could work out. Slate Cicone against the Braves.

Joey Wentz is at the Guardians. Nolan McLean makes his major league debut against the Mariners probably don't want to do that will be fun to watch but I don't think you want to use him right away yeah yeah those are those are the ones that stand out you put in such a long list of names here I did such trash for me to wait through garbage sorry Scott it's like

I feel like I'm in the compactor in a new hope the first star Wars. A movie I've seen. I'm in that garbage water. I've seen it right now. Yeah. Hopefully that little like tentacle thing doesn't yank me underneath.

I don't like anybody. I'm sorry. Zebby. Yeah, I like Zebby. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. You should have just put him on the list, the list of one. Yeah.

I think Sikoni could be fine. I did initially think so, but man, you want to talk about a lineup that's crushing it right now. And in a way that I think is a little more believable than the Guardians. He gives up hard contact too and the Braves hit the ball hard. Yeah. It's a little scary there. Verlander against the Rays like five innings, two runs, something like that maybe.

But the answer is Debbie. And then on Sunday we have Jansen Junk at the Red Sox. Logan Allen gets the Braves. Jose Katana at the Reds. Dean Kramer at the Astros. Christian Javier is on the other side against the Orioles. Ryan Bergert of the Royals faces the White Sox maybe that could work

Chris Paddock at the Twins Darvish coming off a good start but he gets he's at the Dodgers although I guess they're not really hitting well but whatever Kentana at the Reds is unlikely to hurt you too badly Javier versus the Orioles could go okay but it's a big roll of the dice I don't want to do it I don't want to do it

Dean Kramer's coming off a good start at Houston that doesn't seem terrible Yeah. But it's a lot of hold your nose this weekend. So like, try not to stream. Then sometimes you have to, but that's, that should never be the goal. I think especially now. You're just, you're going to say it every podcast until the end of time.

You're just going to tell me. Listen, I don't, I don't want, I want my lack of enthusiasm. You know, it's not just the words you. say it's how you say this is what the people want scott they want streamers but with the right stipulations and provisos okay like this is i'm under duress here and they need to know that they need to know these decisions are being made under those conditions all right i'm going to clip that out and just play that every time we do stream or not stream so then we won't have to say it anymore we'll just It'll kind of just be our new segment sound.

I mean, it's more information. Everybody wants more information. All right. We're going to wrap there. We can't assume everybody's listening to every show. True. All right. We're going to wrap there.

For Scott, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-stop rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.