Fantasy Baseball Today - Michael King or Reese Olson? Hunter Greene Dominates & Start/Sit Questions (9/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Michael King just had the best start of his young career (3:05)! ... Reese Olson is also on a great run recently (7:40). ... Corbin Carroll is the first rookie ever with 25+ HR and 50+ SB (10:54)! ... Hunter Greene loves pitching in September (20:25)! ... Evan Carter has looked great so far (24:35). ... Any interest in Bailey Ober or Reid Detmers in the final week (29:30)? ... Brandon Drury or Willi Castro (32:03)? ... Zack Gelof has been a stud since getting called up (37:13). ... News (43:26): Julio Rodriguez is going for X-rays on his hand. ... Start or sit these pitchers in the final week (51:00)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:30). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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, @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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What a crazy day for pitching. Hunter Green, Michael King, Reese Olson, and many more will break them all down.

Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Thursday, September 21st. I am Frank Stamfield, joined by Chris the Welsh. Today on the show, we will talk about those big pitching performances. Corby Carroll is capping off his crazy rookie season, start or sit decisions for the final week, and much more. Quick reminder to stick with us this off season. We have a bunch of fun content coming your way. As always, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already.

And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and let us know if we helped you dominate your league, win a championship, drop a five-star review, let us know about it. You know, the bosses like that kind of stuff. So we do appreciate all of your five-star reviews. Let's get into Wednesday's action.

Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Welshie, I will give you your opportunity to talk about Corwin Carroll. But first, I've got to talk about my guy. Michael King with the New York Yankees in a losing effort, I must add as well. The best start of his young career against the Blue Jays, seven innings,

one run, 13 strikeouts to zero walks in this one. He had 16 swinging strikes on a career high, 101 pitches. The first time he's thrown more than 87 pitches in his career, had everything working. Six of those swinging strikes on the changeup. Four on the sweeper, four on the fastball, and diving into his pitch mix a little bit,

it, he has two elite secondary pitches. His sweeper and his change-up, they each have a whiff rate over 41% this year. Again, this is Michael King. Seven starts this year with the Yankees, a 178 ERA, a 106 whip, 45 strikeouts, over 30 and a third innings. He is 50% rostered. And Welsh, I think he is at the top, the very top of pitchers to add, sleeper pitchers for the final week.

Right now, looks like he's lined up for two. starts at the Blue Jays and at the Kansas City Royals. We just saw him dominate the Blue Jays here on Wednesday and obviously at the Royals is a great matchup. I think he's at the top. If he's available, you got to get him. I 100% agree more so. As I've been working through a lot of paying attention to offseason stuff and dynasties, there are dynasty leagues out there that Michael Young might have just been sitting around. You pick him up. You pick him up because the way he's been stretched out and the way he's been working, this is a legitimate I know I'm going to say like a sleeper into next year.

And as soon as anyone this year says sleeper, everyone's like, well, they're not a sleeper. But this is a dude in how he's been stretched out has worked completely. He has five straight games of going at least four innings. He has given up a total of four earned runs during that time. He has eight or more strikeouts in three of his last starts. He has looked great. Two of his four double digit used pitches are over 40%. on the whiff rate, he's looked phenomenal.

He's looked great as a starter. He can go deep into games, a 30% K rate, an under 10% walk rate. And as you mentioned, you'd look at the pitch mix. Where are the 40% whiff rates? It's been sweeper and it's been change up. You know, we're hyper-focused on like Nick Ladolo having like a 45% or 48% on his big curveball. You know, if you can just maintain low max EVs against on your fastball, which his sinker, 88 against his fastball.

basketball is 90, and then you have a couple punchout pitches. If you can just go deep and maintain your velo, you can be a good starter. He is doing stuff for the people that have punched out on the back half of this year. They're not going to be prepared for Michael King. And there's probably going to be a lot of articles written about Michael King in the offseason. So I completely agree with you. This stretch out has worked. His stuff has worked.

He's a no brain. Like, I think a lot of us are looking at like, um, sorry Gibson Long as like a must stream type of pitcher. That's Michael Young. Michael Young, I think, is actually the tippy top of that list. He's the new Cole Regan's hype to end the year. So I am very with you. And I would have picked him today had you not. Had I gotten to the sheet before you, I would have put Michael King on here.

But Frank had it all set and was raring to go versus Michael King. Yeah, you know what? Maybe I should have let you take him too because someone left us a four-star review on Apple. And they said they would have gave us five stars, but that I'm too big of a homer on this podcast. I don't know. I feel like I've been pretty tame with my Yankees takes this year, but I guess with the Dominguez stuff. I think what's like the home, what do you think the Homer Yankee thing has been? I think Dominguez, we probably talked about Dominguez a lot when he got called on.

No, no, no, no, no. Piss off with that. There's no way that that's the Homer thing. Jason Dominguez is incredible. Maybe a little defensive of like Luis Severino early on, maybe. No, I'm pretty sure in the review he mentioned Jason Dominguez. So I don't know. We're just talking about guys that get called up.

Can't make anybody happy. Anyway, Michael King. Were you a big Michael Young fan growing up, by the way, Welsh? Yes, actually, I literally said Michael Young earlier. I was on a show today talking about Michael King, and I just kept saying Michael Young. So did I do it again today? Yeah, you said it about three times. I'm sorry, Michael King, Michael King, Michael King, Michael King, Michael King, Michael King.

Got it out of my system, Michael King, not Michael Young. Yes, I did love Michael King with the Rangers. He was a great hitter. Yeah. If you say Michael King's name five, times in a row, he'll just appear on your fantasy being told. He'll go seven inings and be a starter. So, Michael King. I do kind of want to

lump Michael King in with Reese Olson here and quickly talk about him because this guy has been amazing recently as well. So I don't want to take anything away. I think it's kind of Michael King at the top and then maybe Reese Olson is like right behind him for the final week, like a 1A and 1B situation. Because

Reese Olson, while he's done it against lesser competition recently, he just marched into Dodgers Stadium and shut that team down. innings, two hits, one run aloud, five strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 94 pitches, and over his last five starts, he now has a 150 ERA, 0.80 whip, 28 strikeouts, over 30 innings. He's got great secondary stuff. I watched a lot of the start. He has great movement, too. Like his pitches are moving all over the place, the slider, the curve, the change up.

He throws hard with the fastball too. There is a lot to like about this kid, Reese Olson. Seems like he's kind of really figuring things out here to end the season. Next week, he is home against the Royals and home against the Guardians. So two great matchups. He's 33% rostered. I'm taking Michael King, Welsh. Where are you going? King over Reese Wilson?

Yeah. I'm taking Michael King and Michael Young first and then I'll go with Reese also. Yeah, Reese is really interesting too. Almost 3,000 RPM on the slider. The curve spin is elite as well. So I mean, he can absolutely spin those. And then he can just deaden the change up, which is. something you definitely wanted change up sinkers when you can kind of deaden those things.

There's around a thousand RPM difference between his slider and his change up. That's a really, I mean, that's equivalent to we talk a lot about like the Velo mixes, you know, from fastball to whatever your lowest, you know, maybe there's a 20 mile per hour differential. But having like those biggest spin difference just kind of just gives a whole other shape to the pitch as well. So yeah, Reese has been really, really impressive and he's on that list. Maybe number two. I mean, now you're giving me both at two start. that kind of changes the value.

Because I'm thinking of like Gibson Long is one of the like most exciting streamers for everybody. But he's now lining up to only have one start. I would definitely go King and then Reese Olson. And then we'd probably get into singular starts there. But Reese has been good. But King is King. Yeah.

And Sawyer Gibson Long. We'll see him pitch on Friday. So we'll find out what he does there. Good matchup for him against Oakland. And it looks like the final week Gibson Long will face the Royals. So a really good matchup for him there as well. I would slot him between those two names we mentioned. On yesterday's podcast, Scott and I spoke a lot about Ryan Pepio and Kent and Maeda.

Pepio, we're still kind of up in the air. We don't know if he's going to be a two-star pitcher for next week or like a two bulk relief pitcher, whatever you want to call it. But if it looks like he's going to line up that way, I would put Pepio at the top, and then I would go Michael King, and then I would go Reese Olson. If it looks like it's only one start for Pepio, I would put him behind those two names. And same thing goes for Kentamayada, who gets the Oakland A's and in course field next week. So one great start, and then obviously in course field, you don't love that.

But if I'm just ranking all of them again, it would be Pepio with two. If he only has one, it's Michael King at the top, then Reese Olson, then Pepio, and then Kenta Maeda, if you're looking for the final week there. All right, well, now is your time to shine, baby. I know you told us about Corby and Carroll this time last year, right? you joined us here on the podcast. We're talking a lot about prospects while first pitch Arizona's going on and all that fun stuff. And you kept bringing up Corby and Cowell.

He said he's the real deal. Kid's going to be a stud. And now look what he's done. 25 homers, 50 Seals as a rookie. Wax poetic about your boy. Yeah. I mean, it's a cool thing. You and I were actually talking off air about the offseason stuff.

And I think at least for the foreseeable future as long as the reviews keep coming in good, that I get to kind of stick around and do similar to what we did last year. and that was what we were doing. We were talking about positional stuff. It was probably like 11 months ago from where we are right now. And we were just kind of going through positional stuff and talking about prospects. And I try not to be homery. I'm usually actually pretty pessimistic about my own team.

But this is a guy that I feel really adamant about. And, you know, I think the best conversation we can really have around him at this point is what you just did the other day talking about where you rank him. Because listen, he's like the first rookie to go 2550. I think he's the second rookie to go 20, 2040 or 2540, whatever it was with Mike Trout. I mean, Corbyn Carroll has beat every expectation. I remember arguing with Scott on here about the power numbers. I remember arguing about projections, having him at 16 stolen bases, whether it was Cardi's Bat X or steamer. No one had him over 20.

Said he was going to lead the Diamondbacks there. And he's done it. And everything, the hard hit numbers have been nice. The max EVs are almost at 114. barrel rate has gone up. I mean, what do you really need to talk about? But you and I off air were extending the conversation you had on air about the value of how you approach him.

And you said you couldn't see him as a top five. And it was strictly because of that shoulder. And, you know, the swing is not great. The one thing I was kind of counter arguing with you is like, Corby Carroll's safe. That's the other goofy thing. There's the injury thing. But outside of that, he's safe.

He steals massive amounts of bases. He finds ways to get on. Think about the. first three weeks of the year. The guy didn't walk once. All he was doing was striking out. And then he was able to turn, have a complete turn on that for his season and end up having an almost 9% walk rate on there. So I think he's safe. It's just the way he swings, I think makes people a little bit uncomfortable. And I was telling you, I'd been just peeking at some stats. And this was like two days ago. But there were four 40 plus Homer guys, six 40 plus

stolen base guys. When you brought it down to 25, there were. around 18, 25 plus stolen base. I think I'd qualified so like it didn't have Ellie on there. So there's a couple others. So maybe you'd call it 20, but there were double the amount of 25 plus Homer players. So in trying to construct your rosters, you want to pay attention because the elite elite elite power is becoming less than the elite elite stolen bases, which is crazy. But there is a beautiful little mixed line there of players that equate to both. And right now, there's four players that equate to both, or almost there at least. And you're looking at Acuna, you're looking at Bobby Whit Jr., who's one of the most underrated,

Corbyn Carroll and Julio Rodriguez, who's almost at that 40 marker. So, I mean, if when you need to worry about getting the elite homers and the elite stolen bases, you can also just make sure you get guys that qualify them both, and you can build your rosters around them, guys that have good batting average. You're looking at sub 20% K percentage from both Carol and Witt and Acunia. Julio doesn't have that. I just think he is like a top five guy with the only real argument being your concern of like, oh my God, I feel like that shoulder's going to fall off.

So, you know, it's probably annoying to everybody at this point. But listen, 2550, it's an unreal marker. It's the easy rookie of the year. Hopefully he helped a lot of your teams and hopefully he doesn't disappoint next year and suffer some more of a shoulder injury. He's got time to recover in the offseason. And just to put this season in even more perspective, right? because, again, first rookie, 25 plus homers, 50 steals. Think about how long baseball has been around, right?

This is just the 13th individual season in MLB history, 25 plus homers, 50 plus steals. That stat comes per Sarah Lang's on Twitter. So again, like, it's not just a historic rookie season. It's just a historic season. And I think a lot of people are ready to like down talk it because of how much stolen bases are up and the bases have moved. And you're not wrong about that. Like, if we're having an exponential amount of stolen bases,

it easily equates to like, you know, no shifting and not being able to throw over more than twice and the basis being closer. Yes. But you also have to give extra credit to the players that go beyond, that go above and beyond. And who did that? Corby and Carol.

Bobby Witt. Those players went above and beyond what this new rule is allowing for, for other players to go from not as relevant to, like, mediocre in the space. it moved, I mean, we really don't have a gauge for it with Corby and Carroll because he's a rookie, but it moved Carroll to maybe being like a middle line guy to being literally the elite of elite. He also didn't, these rules didn't really help him hit 25 plus homers, but we have to give as much as everyone's going to down talk all of it, don't down talk the Bobby Wits and the Corby Carrolls who have made it into an elite advantage.

I agree with you completely. And I think it's a really good point too, because I think the seasons you might downplay a little bit are the George Springer, just barely getting to 2020. Or, look, Zander Bogartz is having a bonker September right now. And it looks like he's kind of gunning for a 2020 season too. And it's like, okay, that's fine. But let's not downplay the guy's header. Again, having these historic seasons.

Somebody was in my mentions on Twitter or X recently. And they were trying to like downplay what Ronald Acuna has done. They're like, but it's so easy to steal bases. Nobody else is doing what he's doing. Who else is stealing like almost 80? He's creating, he's created his only. club 40-70. Like he's about to eclipse 40-70. That's never been done in baseball history. I don't care about like Steele's rules. No one else has 70 stolen bases, let alone doing it with

40 home runs. And that's why I don't care at all to listen to anybody's argument of being like, well, it's so easy to do this now. That's fine. So going down talk, I'm looking at the list, going down talk Whitmerfield, going down talk T. J. Friedel. Go down talk Michael Garcia. Do those all you want, but don't down talk the elite players that didn't just make it a cool season, a good 2530 season that are putting up video game numbers. Those are the players that you want to prioritize. So that's kind of back to my argument of like, you can be kind of scared about that shoulder, though I would argue that he pulled through it. He's made the whole season worthwhile and he has an offseason to kind of have a full recovery. But those are the players that we should take the

shots on. Like a lot of people are scared to take some shots sometimes. Rightfully so, you know, your season can get ruined. I know, Frank, you're like a little bit timid about it. But like if you're going to take a shot, wouldn't you, here's one. I mean, would you rather take a shot on what's going on with Shohei Otani as a utility player at the back end of the first round or have to commit to a top five pick in Corbyn Carroll? Like what's the shot you'd rather take? Yeah, I mean, there's so much we need to learn this offseason.

But if you're just kind of asking me to answer the question right now, I would probably prefer. to take the top five Corbyn Carroll over the uncertainty of Shohei Otani coming back from Tommy John's surgery. You know, he's going to try and come back in like six and a half months. That's pretty soon to come back from that. So I have my own reservations about Shoah Otani as well. And that's kind of in the same conversation as like a Corbyn Carroll. It's the injuries for me. And I really don't like to mess around with injuries with my first or second round pick. I like to play it pretty safe. But I will say this as well. It's September 21st. So I reserve my right to change my opinion as the

I agree. Like if Corby and Carroll just continues to dominate and he has this awesome postseason and there's literally no worry about the shoulder and he shows up to spring training and it's like a non-issue. It's not even like there's no talk about the shoulder and I'm like, yeah

you know, maybe I'll push him back up it's like the top five or six. But I don't know, that swing just stands out in the back of my head. I know. It's uncomfortable. Every time I see him I'm like blah like as soon as he swings and misses. Here's the other one real quick. Would you rather commit a wheel pick to, I'll give Strider or Cole?

Or would you rather take a top five committed pick to a 2550 Corbyn Carroll? Like, you know what you're getting out of the pitcher. You know there's volatility. You know what the pitching markets look like. It's roto. Let's call it. Would you rather do that in the back half of the first round? Because I don't really see why you'd want to take a pitcher in the first round.

I know Strader's doing what he's doing. or would you rather or like is carol scary enough for you as a top five that you're like yeah I'll just take the pitcher on the back end I know this isn't a scenario someone who really have but right deal with I I think I I would go with strider at the turn just thinking about it right now but it's a fair question I don't know I really don't I I probably not going to take a pitcher in the first two rounds like anywhere I'll wait to like the third or fourth and try and pick up an and then maybe wait a couple rounds and maybe try and get like a pseudo ace after that. But yeah, I think it's a fair question and kind of fun scenarios to think about for next year.

The point is, Corby and Carol is really, really fun. It's pretty good. You know what else is really fun? Hunter Green, it appears that he really likes the month of September because if you remember last year, his final four starts after returning from injury, a 0.78 ERA and a point 83 whip, 37 strikeouts over 23 innings. Hunter Green was awesome down the stretch and that was our lasting memory for this year

wanting to draft him and dreaming on 200 strikeouts and all this kind of upside. And here we are. Same thing on Wednesday. An amazing start against the twins who, again, I realize they have like a historic strikeout, like a historically bad strikeout rate. So maybe you take it with a grain of salt,

but still, 14 strikeouts over seven innings pitch is pretty damn impressive for Hunter Green. He had 17 swinging strikes. on 92 pitches, and he really leaned into that slider in this one. He used it 50% of the time. That was just 40% entering the start, so he made it his most used pitch. Obviously, he was very dominant here, 10 of his 17 swinging strikes on that slider. And here we go again, his last three starts in September.

193 ERA, 0.75 whip, 29 strikeouts over 18 and 2 thirds innings. The guy, he's doing it. I'll look up the matchups here, Welsh, but anything else too, to add on Hunter Green's recent run. One thing I'd really be interested to do is do a comparison of Hunter Green versus Spencer Strider and just see the similarities in where they fall off because these are two like primary two pitch pitchers. Hunter Green is registering the change up around 5% on the season. He's got big width percentages on the slider.

And like even looking at like a game to game log and seeing like where to I mean, strider usually leans pretty heavily on that fastball. every time we've ever talked, I feel like, positive, like really positively about Hunter Green, we're talking about a higher usage of the slider than the fastball. And just being able to find that mix and maybe even being able to manipulate shape. I'm not saying the Hunter Green is strider,

but there are similarities that I would love to find some comparisons to see. Is this something that he can, you know, are we seeing starts that have emulated what we see as an elite two pitch pitcher? Because my problem ultimately is Hunter Green might never, be more than just this like really awesome fun inconsistent pitcher that yeah kind of like striders being right now like like 100 greens full season might be the last two months of what we've seen with spencer strider which we could deal with but it's like these four eras with you know blowout performances

and then a 14 strikeout performance because that's kind of the volatility we see in two to two pitch pitchers christian havier i think struck out 11 tonight or whatever maybe it was 11 or 12 and he has been the epitome of inconsistency. So it's like, I don't think I can ever talk myself up on Hunter Green unless I can see a path where you can manipulate what he's currently been doing to make it better. And Strider is kind of like the piece that I think is where you lean to. But I gave you some time to build up to what you were going to do with the Hunter Green. 2023 pitching in one word. Inconsistency, right? We've talked about it a lot. Some great stretches from pitchers, but then these big blowup starts out of nowhere.

And if you just look at the skills and the pitch mix, Hunter Green is a lot like Spencer Strider. The biggest difference, and again, this is a massive difference when it comes to pitching, is that Hunter Green's control is much more erratic, and he pitches in a terrible home ballpark when it comes to home runs. And I think that's going to be enough of a difference where you see, you know, Spencer Strider is arguably the SP1 and Hunter Green, you know, at his best, maybe he's like a borderline top 30 starting pitch or something like that.

for the reasons that I mentioned. He's only 46% started on CBS, Hunter Green is. And I remember now, I didn't write him in because CBS has him listed as a two-star pitcher next week, but the Reds only have five games. So I don't really see a scenario how that's going to happen. It looks like it'll be one start either at Cleveland or at St. Louis. And frankly, I'd be fine using Hunter Green in either of those matchups the way that he's pitching right now. Yeah, I agree. I'm with you.

All right. I'm with you on it. Oh my goodness gracious. Offense of the night. I want to highlight the Rangers who crushed the Red Sox, 15 to 5. Josh Young, right back in the saddle. Three for five with his 23rd home run. He had three runs, two RBI.

Jonah Heim, he's picking it back up, one for three, with his 18th home run, three RBI. And in his last nine games, he's betting 273 with three home runs. People kept the faith. I thought, you know, Jonah Heim would have been dropped by now. He's still 84% rostered. So if you hold on to Jonah Haim, I think you feel pretty good about it. Mitch Garver keeps doing his thing, one for three with his 18th homer. And a quick discussion on Evan Carter, Welsh.

Yes. I don't know that you've had the chance to talk about him on this podcast yet, but three for four with his second home run, two runs, two RBI. I actually picked him up in Tout Wars. I'm going for the three Pete Welsh. So I got Evan Carter in the lineup. Feel great about that. So far, he's played 13 games with Texas. He's batting 314, two homers, two steals, a 10302.

PS. The dude has looked great. He's 31% rostered. He's got seven games next week. Looks like there's only one lefty on the schedule. If you play in a five outfielder league, man, go get this kid. Go get Evan Carter for the final week. I wouldn't fire up that the good old, anybody that's seen the crow. The fire it up. Far it. I know you haven't seen the crew. Have you seen the crow? I've seen, you know what? There's a lot of movies I haven't seen. But for the movies that I have seen, I've watched him way too many times. Like, I've seen The Crow 10 plus times in my life, probably.

It's a great movie. I haven't, you know what? I haven't, you know what? This inspired me. I haven't watched The Crow in probably 10 years, but I've probably seen it 25 times. I'm going to watch it this week because it was that good. Maybe it's totally not going to hold up and I'm going to come back.

It's a tail between my legs. It's still amazing. I feel it's this amazing movie. But I heard out, fire it out. I always love to go back to that. But I completely agree. Evan Carter has broken my expectation,

at least in the early onset of the power. My question has been like, where is it going to be with the power? He's got a 286 ISO in a very short sample size, which is nice. He's been a little bit strikeout heavy, but he's also walked eight times in 44 plate appearances. The batting average has been up. I think there's a lot of positive signs. I still believe like a long-term thing. I don't see Evan Carter is like an elite power player, and I'm not sure he's going to be an elite, elite stolen base guy.

But guess what? I think he's a 2020 guy. I think he's easily a 2020 guy in today's new environment. and as long as the strikeouts don't get ahead of him. But that's next year. Right now, we got a week and a half left. There's not a bunch of lefties. He's hitting great at 9.

It's a power offense. I'm firing Evan Carter up for sure. All right. Let's take our first break. And when we return, I've got a few other waiver wire pitchers that could be out there. We'll do that right after this.

Fire it up. Welcome back in. Let's talk about some other waiver wire pitchers that are very clearly behind the names we mentioned earlier. Bailey Obert, a solid second. outing back. He was at the Reds. Five innings, two runs, three strikeouts in that one. He is 51% rostered home against the Oakland A's next week. I do like that quite a bit. Reed Detmer's was

solid at Tampa Bay, four innings, one unearned run. He was returning from an injury, so I think they were kind of playing it safe with him. Actually, I'm seeing the pitch count got up to 96, so he was pretty inefficient in this one. Still had 12 swinging strikes for Reed Detmer's. He's pitched better recently. He's got four earned runs over his last three starts. and also gets the Oakland A's. Do the Oakland A's have like 30 games next week? How is everybody playing all these people? Like every great streaming matchup against the A's.

It's amazing. Yeah, but I'm about it, man. Yeah, Reed Demers against the Oakland A's. I can get behind that for the final week. Josiah Gray, he followed up his great, great start last time with a solid one here against the White Sox, five innings, one run. Four strikeouts. He's at Baltimore next week.

Don't love that. And Adrian Houser, quality start, the Cardinals, six innings, one run, four strikeouts. He looks like he lines up for two starts against the Cardinals and Cubs next week, but he's also Adrian Houser. So I don't know. Welch, how would you rank those? Ober against Oakland, Detmer's against Oakland,

Josiah Gray at the Orioles and Adrian Houser for two starts. You make a really good point too when it's like he's still Adrian Houser, though. So it's like really hard to argue that right there. I think he's at the bottom. I think I'm going to probably fall into. Reed Detmer's a little bit here. I think he's going to probably lead the top. Obviously, the Oakland matchup is great. September. He's got a two ERA. I don't know if it's counting most recent. Nineteen strikeouts in that time. A's just a phenomenal matchup. I watched some of the Bailey Oberstar today. It's fine. He's just leaving some stuff in the middle of the plate. A couple guys were just kind of beaten, you know, just beating that ball right up the middle. And I just, it didn't see overpowering stuff, but it's the A's. So I'm going to go. And I think Josiah Gray, I don't like the matchup, but like every time I'm on here too, Josiah Gray is like pitching the next day or soon.

And it gets kind of like being an afterthought. And he's put up some decent ones. I'm going to rank this Red Detmer's on a strikeout potential, Bailey Ober and then what were my other two? Josiah Gray and Adrian Houser. Oh yeah, yeah. Gray and then Houser. I was trying to remember who the last guy was.

Adrian Houser is very forgettable apologies to him because he's still Adrian Houser. But he's at the bottom. I think the answer is one of those. two matchups against the Oakland A's, and then just don't start Josiah Gray or Adrian Hauser next week. Let's talk about a few waiver-wire hitters here. Brandon Drury went three-for-five with a double-dong, and in 40 games since returning from injury, he's batting 225 with nine homers and 30 RBI.

He's 67% rostered. Six home games next week, three against Texas, three against, you guessed it. The Oakland A's. Everyone's facing the Oakland A's next week. And Willie Castro, who I mentioned on yesterday's podcast, another big game here, two for four with a sock in a shoe, his ninth homer, his 30 second stolen base. Dude, quietest 30 stolen bases in the history of baseball. In the history of baseball.

Yeah. It's quietly been a very solid season for Willie Castro. 16 games since returning from the IL. He's batting 305. He's got four homers, three steals, a 937 OPS. And he's 31% rostered. games next week, three in Coresfield, three against, you guessed it. The Oakland A's. That's right. What's behind door number three? The Oakland A's. It's just like Zach Gilloff pops out of a box or

something like that. Who do you prefer between these two? I think I lean Willie Castro. I think he's more dynamic than Brennan jury. I would agree like as a whole, but I also think you can make the distinction of what are you chasing for your league. Are you chasing for power or are you chasing for speed. Willie Castro is a great speed option. Again, he's probably the overarching one, but, you know, Drury is interesting. Jury hasn't had a month where he's played a full, you know, set of games, where he's had less than four homers. He's had at least four homers every single month of playing. He's kind of back on it. The batting averages down, but he's hitting higher in the lineup because there's nobody there. But yeah, I agree with you. Like Willie Castro is the more dynamic player,

and he's really putting himself into a good spot. The other funny thing just about him in general have been the injuries around him. That's allowing like more and more playing time where it's just, yeah, you know, the Royce Lewis stuff. It's not funny, but the Royce Lewis stuff, the Carlos Crea, like he's consistently going to keep being out there. He's stealing bases. Uh, the hard hit percentage has been like really low this year, but he's showing some really solid max EVs. You guys probably talked about it. 114 on the high. It's very Catelle Marte-ish. That's for Willie Castro. Yeah, Willie Castro. That's pretty impressive. Nice. 11.2 with a 6.9% barrel percentage, which is the second highest of his career. Like I said,

that's a very Cotel Marte type of thing to do where you don't have big average EVs, because his average EVs stinks. It's 86.3, but he can tap into it when he's on a little bender, a la Marte. So I'll go with Marte, but if I was trying to chase big power, I would go a jury. Okay. You said Marte there, but I'm pretty sure you met Willie Cash. I mean, I meant Michael Young. I met Michael Young, is what I meant. Three names. deeper leagues for the final week of the season. We just talked about, we continuously talk about the twins matchups for the final week. Oakland and InCores Field.

All these injuries to Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis. I think Kyle Farmer is not a bad name. We're talking like 15 team leagues, something like that. It could be available. One for four with his second steal here on Wednesday. He's 11 home runs on the season. He's 6% rostered, second, third base, and shortstop eligible. Again, the name there is Kyle Farmer.

Mark Vientos went to. for four with a double dong for the Mets, and in 19 games since returning, he is batting 279 with five home runs and a 93.5 average exit velocity. He is 8% rostered with six home games next week, and Tyrone Taylor, another name I mentioned yesterday, two for four with a double dong here, and in the second half, 48 games. Tyrone Taylor is betting 274 with eight homers, five steals, in 867 OPS. percent rostered. He's got six home games next week. Three lefties on the schedule. Welsh, any enthusiasm in deeper leagues for Kyle Farmer, Mark Vientos, Tyrone Taylor. How many lefties did the

Mets have? Do you have that in front of you? I can pull it up. I know there's at least one, Braxton Garrett. They do have some tough pitching matchups. He gets Yuri Perez, Zach Wheeler, Aaron Nola. So it's not the only problem is Viantos is hitting 215 against righties right now and $2.46 big damage coming up against lefties, though his power has come against right. He's, if he's, if it's not a left, if there's not like a dominant amount of lefties, I'm probably not interested in Vientos. I would probably move off from him. I feel like Farmer did this last, I'm going to look here. I think Farmer did this last year where he had this like late run. Yeah, I mean, October, he had 294. August of last year, he hit 291 with a couple

homers. He had six homers in September. So the final two months of the year, he had eight homers. Kyle Farmer did. So I feel like it's just like a late thing that he likes to run out. I guess my overarching guy would probably be Farmer here. If it was a daily transaction league and I was trying to play for power, it's Vientos. But I think Viantos's big damage is targeting lefties. And I, you know, if he's only got one or two on the docket, probably not. Probably Farmer. It looks like just two, Braxton Garrett and Christopher Sanchez on the schedule next week for Mark Vientos. Let's quickly talk about, I just mentioned the name, right? Like, who's behind?

number three, it's Zach Gelloff. He has been nothing short of a stud. Two for four with a sock and a shoe on Wednesday. He had one rough five game stretch at the end of August. And at that point, I started thinking, all right, well, maybe this is it. You know, Zach Gelloff starting to come back down to life. And then boom, September started and he's picked it right back up. Overall, he's played 59 games. That's it with Oakland. 277 batting average, 13 homers, 13 steals, in 881 OPS. He does swing and miss quite a bit. He's got a 26% strikeout rate,

but lots of line drives, 91 mile per hour, average exit velocity, a 12% barrel rate. And initially I thought, all right, he could be one of these guys that, you know, he pulls his fly balls and he can kind of maximize his power that way. Uh-uh.

Six of his 13 homers have either gone to center or opposite field. So this dude just has legit power. At least so far, Welsh, I have been so. super impressed by what we've seen from Zach Gelloff. Do you remember too? He was a guy that we saw in the Arizona Fall League. Actually, you want to know a funny thing? I don't know if you remember this. You were sitting next to me.

Do you remember Zach Gelloff threw me a ball? And do you remember there was a player that threw me a ball? It was the sunny day game where Jackson Meryl was standing next to us and he was and people were yelling at him because they wanted a free Whataburger or whatever it was or a in and out. Zach Gelloff had a ball and he just threw it over to me and I just had it in the cup that was sitting over there. That was our famous Zach Gelloff ball. You don't even remember. I was a little bit banged up. I was kind of recuperating that morning when we were at the game. So, apologies. The famous Zach Gallag. Not that it means anything. But yeah, I'm in complete agreement with you. The guy, his guy, he actually kind of has this like Royce-lewis-vi vibe to me and his approach. And like, Royce has kind of calmed the swing down a little bit. So there's some stuff still going on with Gelloff. But there's 20-20 easy potential in the future in the, you know, in future seasons. One interesting. The interesting thing to continue to watch is to see how he's going to end up hitting lefties. He is hitting 304 against righties this year. I just went away from it.

200 against lefties. 12 of his 13 homers have come against righties this year. So lefties have been a major problem. The only thing I would point out is with a guy like this, like long term, if you get into a little bit slumps, there could be a platoon potential if you can't hit lefties at all. But the hard hit numbers are there. He's a righty. I know.

It's a weird split. I'm just saying it's a super weird split. It's like 200 against lefties right now. He's not hitting his opposite side. 12 homers on his side of the ball. But I love Zach Gelloff. You kind of keep rolling it out here. The K percentage is actually to me not in like a worrisome state where I know you were like

it's a little bit high. It is a little bit high. But you know, if you think about him also maintaining, he's got a 277 batting average with a 260 expected batting average. So that's like maintained. batting average, double digit barrel percentage, over 42% hard hit. He's just checking boxes left and right. We just got to figure out what this lefty split situation is about, which is super weird.

It's a it's a reverse split. But gotta love Zach Gelloff. And I don't know where the Zach Gelloff ball is anymore, unfortunately too, by the way. Oh, darn it. I just checked out his splits in the miners. And he's consistently been better against lefties than righties. So I actually find this is really encouraging that he's been as good. It's righties as he has been so far.

And look, I understand there's still some downside here. He plays for the Oakland A's. It's a bad ballpark. It's obviously a very bad lineup. But man, just on an individual basis, if you've got Zach Gilloff in like a keeper or Dynasty League, I wouldn't be looking to sell high. I guess that's how I would put it.

Like I really like what we've seen so far. Lots of speed in the minors this year too. I think there's a chance he could be like a 25-25 guy. I don't think that's out of the question based on what we've seen this year. Yeah, it'll be interesting. to see like with projection once they run everyone's like oh steamer or whatever like how many guys are projected at 25 25 are close because I guess like at the top of my head I feel like what would you say like there's maybe 10 like 10 player 10 to somewhere in between 10 and 15 which is way bigger than

in years past but geloff is one of those and geloff might not be a top 150 guy going into the off season simply because he's in Oakland A he when you are paying up for the power speed combo players you're always looking who are the players that I can target a little bit later that can check a few of those boxes. He is one of those players with a pretty decently maintained batting average. So I'm I'm with you. I wish I could be on here disagreeing and be like, oh, let's have parody and blah, blah, blah, but I agree with you on, on, uh, Kelloff. All right. I was going to quickly pull up and see how many 25, 25, 25 bats we have so far this season.

And it looks like, oh man, this is going to be fantastic podcasting. Yeah, it's the best podcasting. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. We have eight so far this season. And then, but you also got to kind of calculate like, who are the guys that are close? Like a Rosarina is almost there. True. Freddie Freeman is almost there, 26, 20.

Bellinger is almost there. So like my point was like maybe if you extrapolate it out, there's like 15 to 20 players that check the box of maybe being a 25, 25, 25 guy. And Gelloff might be like the bottom rank of players that is going to probably be the cheapest. Like a guy like C.J. Abrams is going to be exponentially more valuable and go for a lot more than, I think, than Zach Gelloff. But it's someone that we shouldn't completely forget about, even though his RBI numbers are kind of stink because, you know, he's an A. Right. Jose Ramirez is right there. 24 homers, 26 steals.

This is a crazy one. Look at the shirt. Anthony Volpey, 21 homers, 24 steals this year. But obviously the batting average is in the toilet. All right, let's talk about some news and notes here. What, what's up? Who would you rather have, Zach Gelloff or Anthony Volpe, next year? Oh, I think it's undoubtedly,

Zach Gelloff, based on what we've seen so far. Yeah. Okay. Easy enough, easy enough. Yeah, take that guy who called me a Yankees Homer. Yeah, Homer. Some news and notes, Julio Rodriguez is undergoing precautionary X-rays after taking a pitch off of his left hand.

Please, please be okay. Like, we need Julio Rodriguez for the rest of the season. And for the playoffs. I really want the Mariners to make the playoffs. My preseason World Series prediction, Welsh, was the Braves over the Mariners. Wow, you really need that. By the way, can I also point out that the Trident

is the greatest Homer celebration of all the teams? Do you think there's anybody that remotely comes close? Oh, man, there's a lot of cool ones. I would have to think about it. I really like... The Dong-Bong? Oh, for the Orioles. They do like that.

That's pretty cool. Yeah, super cool. I like the samurai helmet for the angels too. I think that's pretty dope. Ooh, okay. Yeah, but I think that there's something about the Trident. Like, I'm a sucker. Everyone knows I like cards and stuff.

I've been waiting for it. Tops now just the other day, Fanatics. They did the card of Julio standing in the dugout with the Trident, like, screaming. And I was like, I have to have that. It's the coolest looking thing. The Trident is unmatched, and we need Julio being our Aquaman throughout the playoffs. Absolutely. Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.,

has been, was scratched from the lineup due to right knee discomfort. And he was actually day to day with that knee injury way back in May. So I wonder if maybe it's just been a recurring issue for Vlad Jr. this season. And that's why he's had the down season that he's had. But I don't know. I'm just trying to make excuses for the guy. Christian Yelich has now missed 11 of the past 12 games with that lingering back issue. Shane Bieber is slated to return from the 60 day IL on Friday against the Orioles. Jason Dominguez underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, which included the addition of an internal brace. He's expected to be sidelined nine to 10 months, putting his estimated return around the

All-Star break. Did you see? I'm just going to point out, like, on Twitter, like, he took a picture with the doctor, like they took a picture and they were both like thumbs up. They're like, hey, and like he has all these pictures of it. It just seems so weird. Like the celebration of the thing and the doc. I feel like the doctor asked him for a picture.

And there's just all of these surgery pictures out there for Jason Dominguez. We're like, okay, there's the Martian. But yes, he will be back after Shohei Otani, which is actually probably a shock to a lot of people. Yeah. What a rough time, man. You talking about that reminded me of, I'm kind of this weird Yankees-Jets crossover.

You usually don't get a lot of that in New York. Homer. Yeah. There was pictures of Aaron Rogers, like right after he got his Achilles, I don't know, reattached or whatever happened there. And his foot was like purple. I'm like, why did you take this picture in the surgery bed? It's kind of gross, but whatever.

It's super gross. So I'm not about that. So you're saying your favorite players are just held up in wheelchairs right now. Yeah, they're just dropping like flies right now. People should be nicer in the comments. Like, do you know what Frank is dealing with right now? Oh, it's so, it's so bad. Like, so much enthusiasm for this jet season and it's like, it's already done.

Like the year is already over. It's just like, I remember loving Garrett Wilson and now it's like, yeah. No one wants to hear about football. Better in center field than playing with the Yankees right now. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Riley Green, by the way, also had Tommy John's surgery,

but is expected to be ready for the start of the 2024 season. How is this possible, you ask? While the injury for him, non-throwing elbow, so not as severe as for Jason Dominguez, who had the surgery on his throwing elbow. Royce Lewis will have an MRI on his hamstring when the twins returned home this weekend. He exited Tuesday night with left hamstring tightness.

Hassan Kim has misfortune with abdominal soreness. Ryan Malkassel, they said he wasn't going on the IL. Surprise. He was placed in the I.L. with left AC joint inflammation retroactive to September 17th. I wonder if seeing Heston Kirstad hit two home runs in his first five games, maybe made them feel a little bit better about having Kirstad in the lineup here. Sit down, kid. We got Kirstadt. Yeah, I totally agree. And by the way, Ronald Hern has been pretty amazing as well.

Yes, he really has. Carlos Karea was placing the IL with Planter fasciitis, but expects to return when first eligible September 29th in Koresfield. I don't know. We'll see about that. Kenley Jansen has yet to be cleared from the COVID-IL and might not return until next week. Eduardo Rodriguez will start Sunday against the A's.

Everyone's facing the A's. After leaving his previous start with a left shoulder scapula spasm, Jake Berger left with quad tightness here on Wednesday. Luis Arise has missed two straight with a left ankle sprain. Starling Marte is scheduled to play a pair of rehab games Saturday and Sunday. And if all goes well, He'll be clear to return to the Mets during their final homestead. This is going to be an audible meme here, but I don't believe you.

Just put that meme out there. I don't believe you, Sterling Marte. I'm not going to be fair again. Alex Cow was placed in the aisle with a left hip impingement and will miss the rest of the season. Kyle Harrison has been recalled and will start Thursday against the Dodgers. Spoiler alert, but if you play in a daily lineup league, do not play Kyle Harrison against the Dodgers. McKenzie Gore is being sure. shut down for the remainder of the season due to a blister.

White Sox reliever Gregory Santos was placed in the aisle with right elbow inflammation, which means Brian Shaw or Aaron Bummer will likely get the next save chance for the White Sox, assuming that they have one. I'm not sure that that will happen. Let's take our final break. When we return, starters sit these pitchers in the final week of the season. I have 11 names written down. We'll get to that right after this.

Welcome back in. Let's do it. Rapid Fire. starter sit these pitchers in the final week of the season. And as I say all the time, preface this with, there's no blanket answer. This is for 12 team leagues. And obviously it depends on which pitchers you have on your team.

But we'll just go based on the matchups and how these pitchers have been pitching recently. I'm sure most people benched Aranola when he was in line to face the Braves this week. And what does he do? He pitches really well. Six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He had 18 swinging strikes.

The final week of the season, it looks like he is home against the Pirates and at the Mets. I think that's an auto start, right? Auto start. Fire it up. Auto start indeed on Aaron Nola. What about the pitcher on the other side? Bryce Elder, he had a pretty awful start. Three and two thirds innings, four runs aloud, five walks in this one.

Over his last five starts, a 488 ERA and a 145 whip. Two starts next week against the Cubs and the Nats. Big old nope. He has had a 4-5 plus ERA for three straight months and he has had a 1-4 whip in two of those three months. He's just giving it up to run differential between the pre-all-star break and the post-all-star break. Maybe if I'm chasing wins, but I think he is a liability for ratios. Yeah, 100%. Brian Bayo was blasted at the Texas Rangers. He allowed eight runs over three innings. He had four walks. two strikeouts, two homers allowed in this one. And he is only 51% started. One start against the raise next week. I think that's a no for Brian Bayo for me. I'm gonna second your no.

That's a big no from Bayo. Okay. John Gray has failed to complete even four innings in each of his last three starts. And over his last six starts, he has a $7.99 ERA and a 216 whip. He's 85% rostered. I'll do you one better here, Welsh.

Just drop this guy. Drop John Gray for any of the pitchers we talked about earlier. Blind, you could just blindfold. You know what? Play a game of like, really take some, uh, do the online dice game.

Pick three dice. Roll the numbers. See whatever number it is. Scroll down. Pick whatever number that picture equates to. Drop John Gray for that player because it doesn't matter. Christian Javier turned in his first double digit strikeout start. Since May 10th, he was up against the Orioles.

Five innings one run allowed. 11 strikeouts with 20 swinging strikes. Uh, 14 of those on the fastball. and I saw this quote after the game. Christian Javier, this is what he had to say about his fastball. I think for me, it was really effective like last year. I was able to get a lot of swings and misses and dominate inside the strike zone. Even with that, 57% started.

He's at Seattle next week. I think it's a no for me on Christian Javier. I think it's a maybe for me. I mean, if Julio does miss time, think about that. That's one big impactful bat. I get a little bit drawn in to players that can identify major problems, and it's kind of silly to be like, hey, it's great inside the zone. But if you've got a fastball heavy pitcher that is trying to paint corners and can't do it and they are losing their command, then that tells me something that this is a guy that is going to repeat the same thing. I think a team like the Mariners, if I am a little bit, if I'm being a little bit liberal about my ratios and I'm just trying to get like, you know, a guy in there and take a shot.

and I'm not trying to hug him. I actually think I could start him here, but I'd really pay attention to what that lineup looks like. I think for this next one, he's probably an auto start, but I'll just point out, for George Kirby over his last six starts,

he has a 556 ERA and a 129 whip, and the final week, he has two starts, but they're against the Astros and the Rangers. Talk about this final week, by the way. I mean, the way that the ALS is playing out right now, the Mariners have to face the Astros and the Rangers in the final week. Like it does not get more dramatic than this.

I think I'm still using George Kirby, but it's a little more scary than it has been earlier in the year. It feels like the only team not facing the A's is the Mariners. Everybody else is and it's just not George Kirby. Yeah, I agree with you. And I don't mean to blanket, but I know it could be annoying to people because they want like every answer correct to them. But it's just like, I saw the same thing. I'm like, hey, you start like, would you bench Zach Wheeler against the Braves? And it's like, man, the guys that have been really good.

I don't want to cherry pick. If you have the ability to have viable streaming options and you can cherry pick, then I think so. But at the end of the day, the elite of elite players, you've got to kind of depend on. I guess if I were to cherry pick one, I'm probably not trying to do that Astros one. If I were to do it. And that is assuming you have the ability to stream and make up for it in other spots. But I kind of agree with you. Like if it's just a straight up blanket, do I do it or not?

I probably do it because it's Kirby. Yeah. Seth Lugo now has a quality start in six of his last seven outings. And in the final week of the season, he's at the Giants. I think I'm good with that. I think I'm good with that as well. Yeah. Easy stuff.

I don't have a lot to add to it. Like Lugo has been like a good, surprising innings eater type of guy. Pile up some strikeouts. Padre, especially like the back end of the season with the Padres, kind of shambles. You never know who they're going to be shutting down. So yeah, I agree with you. For the, for Aaron Savali, he got hit hard against the Angels here on Wednesday. He allowed six.

runs over three innings. Continues to rack up to strikeouts, though. In nine starts with the race, he's got a 536 ERA, a 133 whip, 55 strikeouts over 43 and two-thirds innings. So I can't really explain what's going on with Aaron Savali. He's 66% started on CBS. He's at the Red Sox in the final week.

I don't feel great about it. Like I think I'd rather use Seth Lugo than Aaron Savali. Ooh, if you're giving me that option, Um, yeah, maybe just because the, the mat, well, I don't the matchup is that much better. Like, I think I would go with Savali. I think I would do it. Okay. I think I would like pick up Michael King and use him over Aaron Savali, right? Like if that's an option. Yes, 100%. I'm definitely, like, I'm very big on Michael King. I go Michael King. Who's the other one we were talking about? I would do that too. I think I go Reese Olson. What there was also a singular. So I didn't. I think there was like, we don't know if Pepio is going to have one or two starts yet. There was like Bailey Ober against O'clock. I would do. I think there was like, Bely Ober against O' read Detmer's against Oakland. Detmer's against Oakland, I might do. Yeah, so that's the territory. So you determine who's listening,

like if those guys are options for you to change to, then I think like you kind of have your answer. Yep. Mitch Keller got hit hard at the Cubs, seven runs allowed over five and two-thirds innings. He gave up another two home runs. 13 hard hits allowed in this game. You wanna talk about inconsistency.

Mitch Keller has been as inconsistent as they come. He's prone to these big blow-up games as well. as well. He has been tagged for six or more earned runs in five of his last 12 starts. And those are the ones that are so hard to recover from. The problem is that he's lined up for two starts next week against the Marlins and at the Phillies. So I think we could see more of the same. Like I think the Marlin start could go really well. But then in Philadelphia against the way that lineup has played, it's kind of like Jekyll and Hyde for next week. I think I'm out. I think he's too volatile. I would rather those other two-star

guys that we were talking about, I would rather Michael King than Mitch Kelly. I think there's too much and I know that's crazy because it's like, who's King? King could easily blow apart, but I think Keller has proven to be too inconsistent. So if you're stuck into the two starts, I think I would just rather pass. And I'm not really sure I like either one of them. Yeah. Yuri Perez has not been as good since rejoining the Marlins here. His eight starts since returning. He's got a 426 ERA and a 118 whip. I feel like I'm kind of grading him on a curve because of what he did earlier in the year. But like, that's still okay for a rookie. He's not going very deep into his starts.

He's like way past how many innings he threw last year too. So I wonder if he's starting to wear down. Yuri Perez, 48% started. He's at the Mets in the final week. No, I don't think so. I don't think you're playing for wins. I think maybe you're just playing for ratios and I think they're babying it pretty hard.

So that's a pass for me. Last one here, Bobby Miller didn't, did not have his best stuff against the Tigers, but still managed a quality start. He gave up two runs over six innings. He had seven strike. in that one. His previous five starts before this,

a little shaky, 578 ERA, 113 whip. He is 72% started. Looks like he lines up for two starts next week. One at the Giants. Okay, we like that. One, in Cores Field. What do you think about Bobby Miller?

I think if I was desperate, I could do it for the two starts, but I think I'd probably rather not. I don't think the Giants are not a layup, and anything can happen in Colorado. Like he could go seven and strike out nine and give up two hits or he could give up nine earn runs and have two strike. Like anything could happen. It's risk management to your own fantasy team.

I am not going to suggest Bobby Miller. I see the case where I could do it. I think that's too volatile for me. And I think there's some less sexy named players that I would rather than a lot of the dudes you've thrown out here. All right. Before we get into some leftovers, I did want to quickly talk about the Arizona Fall League and what's the latest going on? on there. You know, we've mentioned the Arizona Fall League before and obviously the Welsh is going to be out there going to a ton of games. You know, for people, you know, I just kind of assume everyone

knows what it is, but they might not know. So Welsh, I don't know, 30 seconds or less, how would you describe what the Arizona Fall League actually is? Yeah, it's the finishing school. It's the place that teams are sending prospects anywhere from like high A to double A, sometimes low A, that are either trying to gain more innings or at bats that are close to the majors, a Rule 5 eligible as well. It's a big Rule 5 place. It is the extra look for teams on some of the game's biggest prospects. And I think we've had 30 to 40 plus from last year's AFL make debuts this season. So it is a very like, I know I talk about it a lot, but it is important. Even for people that don't care about Dynasty, because next year, your seasons are going to be impacted by a lot of these players. And getting early looks can give you some insight. Because you're going to have projection systems that are going to not like a lot of rookies sometimes and just having an extra edge of being able to see a player

gives you kind of perspective. You were given that this year, Frank, more than anything else. So we're already getting names. It feels like they shall haven't released the rosters, which is insane. They might release them Friday. The games start October 2nd. I'm going to be out pretty much every single day seeing them,

hopefully seeing some of the games big prospects. There's only a handful of names that we've been given publicly. Colson Montgomery with the White Sox, Kevin Alcantra. There's a big rumor that Ricky Tiedeman is locked in a pitch, which will be one of the biggest pictures we've seen in some time. A bunch of middle line players. I've heard Ryan Bliss, who got traded to the Mariners, and a handful more that we can't speak of, but we're patiently waiting to see if we are going to get the likes of Jackson Holiday as the top prospect, or, you know, the hairy forwards of the world, or even crazy, a guy like Ethan Salas, who has moved all the way up to AA.

You never know what can happen. We've seen 18-year-old guys come up. We've seen 26-year-old players. It's a unique place that they don't televise the stuff really, and we will try to give you as much extra coverage as we can and help you in your fantasy leagues next year. Yeah, and this is really something for, look, if you're really a baseball fanatic, and I know during the fall, obviously we got the playoffs going on,

so you can very easily follow that, but if you want to follow even more baseball and check some box scores and see what's going on with some of these prospects playing, you could do that. You can just Google like Arizona Fall League and the website is up there, and you can follow a lot of, long. So it's pretty fun. Last year we saw Jordan Walker out there. We saw Mason

Winn. We saw Zach Geloff and again those guys. Justin Kirstead. Yeah. We saw H. Mervis. Matt Mervis. I'm hoping to see you back with the Cubs soon, please. Matt Mervis. Might see him again this year in the NFL. I never know. Yeah, you never know. And a quick reminder that the Welsh and I, we will both both be out there at first pitch Arizona, which is presented by Baseball H.Q. That will be from November 2nd to the 5th. And it's in this awesome fantasy baseball convention. You get to watch some of those prospects play, live podcasts, panels, way too early 2024 drafts. So if you want to join in on some of the fun, head to BaseballHQ.com slash first pitch

Arizona. Let's talk some quick leftovers here from Wednesday. And some big pitching performances, Kyle Bradish, he was awesome at the Astros. I love him. Six shutout innings, nine strikeouts, 18 swinging strikes on 100 pitches, just leaned into that slider through it 50% of the time in this start. and it was awesome. 13 of his 18 swinging strikes came on that slider.

Welsh your boy, Merrill Kelly. He's back on track. Quality start at home against the Giants. Six and two-thirds innings, one run, five strikeouts for him. And Kodi Senga, another quality start at the Marlins. Didn't have his best stuff, six innings, two runs, three strikeouts, but still kind of managed a good one here. Eight straight quality starts for Senga.

You want to know why he didn't have his best stuff? Because I bet his strikeout prop, because I was like, Oh, Louisa Rise is not going to be in the lineup and you're going to have Jorge, the likes of Jorge Salare leading off. This seems like a prime spot. He struck out like seven plus and four of his last five. This seems great. Struck out three, could not get anything, was pitching to a ton of contact.

And of course, because I bet him today. Just letting you know it's my fault. I do have a new sound bite for Kodai Senga. You want to hear it? Yeah. Here you go. Who you gonna call? Who are you gonna call?

Ghost forkball. Oh, ghost for, how is that cool? Koda, Senga. Where are we going to go with this? All right, goes forkball. I got it. Kevin Gosman, back to his dominant ways too. At the Yankees, six shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, 17 swinging strikes in that one. Anything to add on Gosman, Merrill Kelly, and Kyle Braddish.

No, I mean, I just, like, Kyle Braddish is going to be so unique to look at next year with low walk numbers, decent strikeout numbers. ERA, even though the expected ERA is a little bit higher, it's still under four, which is something you love to see. I just think, you know, the improvements we've seen just across the board of the slight, you know, the heavy slider usage, having an expected batting average right around 200 and having two double digit pitches with an over 30% whiff rate. Like this is the type of stuff with those results that are going to lead to him being

probably a really good sleeper pitcher next year because there's so many pitchers in Scott's glob that Braddish is probably not one that's going to come at a high cost. And I think a lot of us are going to probably find ourselves, you know, as a pitcher that will round out our staffs. Some quick hitting leftovers, Nick Cassiano's, two for five with a double dung. Very solid bounce back season for him, 27 homers, 99 RBI, 10 steals, and he is the 15th best outfielder in Roto, 24th best in head-to-head points leagues. It's a great bounce back season here for Nick Cassiano.

Catee won for four with his 24th home run. He had a rough August, but has bounced back big time in September, betting 333, three homers, five doubles, two triples, a 10thal, 1019 OPS for Catelle Marte in the month of September. Nolan Jones, guy just continues to crush it. Two for three with a double, his 17th steal. He's already having a huge week. So hopefully you'll listen to Scott the past couple weeks.

You picked up Nolan Jones. He's got six hits this week, a homer, and four steals. His 150 game pace, 26 homers, 26 steals. Ooh, another 20, 25, 25 guy. Yeah. And you know what? I don't know where the hype will wind up on Nolan Jones, but I just feel like you're going to be able to get him and Zach Gelloff at like

a pretty good price next year. Maybe I'm gonna say who would you rather? Who would you rather of them? I think I gotta take the the Coors field aspect there. Yeah me too. And it's just like Oakland is so bad, but I like both. I like both guys. Zander Bogartz also continues his Torrid September, three for four with a double and his 18th steal so far in the month batting 4-71, four homers, nine doubles? in a month already, five steals, and a 1323 OPS for Xander Bogart's. Call to the bullpen, a few updates here for the Phillies. Craig Kimberl pitched a ninth inning with the game tied.

Matt Strom would eventually pick up his second save in extra innings. For the twins, Yohan Duran entered in the bottom of the eighth inning with the twins trailing at the time three to two. He struck out two. The twins then took the lead. and in the bottom of the ninth, Griffin Jacks got his third save of the season. How did the twins get that lead?

Well, Alexis Diaz got the ninth inning with a one-run lead at the time. He gave up three runs on a walk and two hits, took his third blown save and fifth loss of the year. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz got the eighth inning with a three-run lead facing Zach Gelloff, Ryan Noda, and Seth Brown. Justin Topa walked one in the ninth,

but picked up his third save of the first. year. Of course. For, it was kind of weird, right? Like, why did the Mariners use Munoz in the eighth? Of course, Justin Topa. Why how could we have all not thought that the great Justin Topa would be getting his save? Of course. For the Padres, Josh Hader allowed a hit but picked up his 31st save. And I'm just seeing now for the Tigers, a gentleman named Will Vest got his second save of the year. Did Alex Lang pitch in his game? No, he did not. I'm guessing he was unavailable. Will Vest Got the final five outs for his second save of the year with the Detroit Tigers.

Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream. And on Thursday, we have, here are some options. We've got Kyle Hendricks up against the Pirates. We have Griffin Canning at Tampa Bay. Wade Miley at the Cardinals. We have Ranger Suarez against the Mets. Emmett Sheehan against the Giants. I know he's looked better recently.

You like any of those names, Walsh? I think I can get down with Ranger. Kyle Hendricks still both a little bit risky Thursday. Thursday I believe Gibson Longhead was moved off of Thursday. So this group, and I think they moved Kyle Hendricks up. I think Kyle Hendrix used to be a Friday start. And they took him away from facing Colorado to face Pittsburgh. So I think Kyle Hendrix is kind of that safer quality start, win type of guy. Hugging your ratios a little bit, not getting strikeouts.

Ranger is a little bit more of a risky play. But I might want to, you know, push my risky plays to first. Friday or the weekend. On Friday, the man you've mentioned many times. Sawyer Gibson-Long. I know, sorry, it's annoying. No, no, no. He's pitched well. We absolutely need to mention him.

He's at the Oakland A's, so that's, you know, everyone's facing Oakland. Ken Waldichuk on the other side, he's facing the Tigers. We've got Dane Dunning against the Mariners. Brandon Fott at the Yankees. This Yankee lineup has been really bad. By one hesitation is that Brandon Fott is a flyball pitcher in Yankee Stadium. No way. Yeah, it's a little scary.

No way did you start Brandon. Unless you get points for giving up homers, there's no chance I would start Brandon fought in New York. I'm going to look and see what the giving up homer prop is, and I'll take the over. If it's one and a half, I'm taking the over. He might give up four. This is Gibson Long.

This is only Gibson Long here. You could make a case for Dane Dunning if the good Dane Dunning shows up. Teller McGill has had some signs, but I just don't want to go up against Philly here. Tewin Walker, I think there's a lot of interesting names. The only one that would really want to jump.

on here is Gibson Long, hopefully not setting yourselves up for some big failure against the A's because they feel like can do that sometimes. But that would be how I'm going down with the ship of these two days. We are going to wrap there for the Welsh. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.