Fantasy Baseball Today - Mike Trout Out 4-6 Weeks, Colton Cowser Promoted & Tarik Skubal's Debut (7/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

Mike Trout is out 4-6 weeks with a hamate bone injury (2:05). Who are the best replacements off the waiver wire? ... Colton Cowser is being promoted by the Orioles (8:30)! ... Alek Manoah is returning to the Blue Jays Friday (15:42). ... Thairo Estrada is also out with a hand injury (19:17). How do we replace him? ... Tarik Skubal looked great in his debut (23:36). ... Do any of these waiver wire hitters matter for Fantasy (31:28)? ... News (38:00): Corbin Carroll returned on Tuesday. ... Aaron Nola, Logan Gilbert and Joe Musgrove were all awesome (46:04). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (50:00). 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. It was a crazy day in the world of baseball. Big injuries, another massive prospect promotion, and big performances.

Let's break it all down. Welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, July 5th. I am Frank Stamphill joined by the birthday boy Chris Towers. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you have it already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow and leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. We really do appreciate it. Chris, happy belated birthday. Did you do anything fun? Uh, yeah, over the weekend, I did some fun stuff, but not today. Now, I stayed home and played video games and made an expensive steak.

and tried to comfort my dog while the fireworks were going off, which it's 1228 as we're recording it, and I'm still hearing fireworks in the background. So apologies if you hear some popping in the background. It's just fireworks. It's fine. What video games are we playing nowadays?

A little tiers of the kingdom, and then as always, Warzone. That's hanging with the boys playing war zone. You know how it is. I don't exactly because I haven't played Call of Duty or Warzone in quite a while, but I can imagine. I'm currently playing a really old Zelda game for the Game Boy Color, Link's Awakening,

but no one. Great game. No one cares about that. Anyway, be nice to Chris in the comments, by the way. I know you YouTubers out there, you're being real mean to Chris with the thumbnail. They're fun, man. We got all the emotions and the facial expressions and all that kind of crazy stuff. Be nice to Chris. Let's get into it. A bunch of crazy news from the 4th of July, and we'll start off with the biggest news of the day. Mike Trout placed on the aisle with a left hamate bone fracture in his hand,

which typically requires four to six weeks to heal. It's a bit of a down season here for Mike Trout. He was batting 263, but he had 18 home runs. He was the 16th best outfielder in head-to-head points leagues, 17th best in Roto this year.

Chris, your initial thoughts, I know that a lot of big names have dealt with this injury before. I believe John Carlos Stanton has had it in the past. Warner Franco dealt with it last year as well. Your immediate reaction to Mike Trout out four to six weeks. It's unfortunate, first of all, just because Trout was actually staying healthy so far this season. And look, he wasn't having a great season, but like he was still on right around 100 run 90 RBI, 35 Homer Pace while not killing you in batting average.

So his struggles had been pronounced, but he was starting to show signs of turning around lately as well. So it's bad news all around. Hopefully it doesn't linger. And, you know, obviously anytime you're talking about the hand or wrist, there's some concern. I think hamlet bone injuries, once you get past them, they tend to be okay. But it's certainly a concern. Yeah, let's talk about quickly how this affects the angels because they did recall Joe Adele. And though I mostly feel like he'll be a short side platoon at least immediately.

And maybe he earns more playing time in the near future. But it's good news for Mickey Moniac who has. as quietly had a really good season, and we've talked about him here or there, and every time we bring them up, we say, well, there's not enough playing time. That's about to change. I think Mickey Moniac is at least going to be

the strong side platoon in the outfield moving forward. Joe Adele was doing some nice things in the minors this year, batting 271 with 23 home runs, nine steals, and a 956 OPS. And since the start of June, someone pointed this out to me on Twitter, Joe Adele had the same number of walks to strikeouts. 17 walks, 17 strikeouts.

So the plate discipline has trending in the right direction. He's hitting the ball really hard in the minors, lots of home runs. Chris, do you see any value here for Joe Adele or is it just a short side platoon in the immediate aftermath? We'll keep an eye on it. I mean, this is a guy who's 162 game pace at AAA over the course of his career is 45 home runs with a 903 OPS, tons of strikeouts that remains in issue 86 and 72 games so far this season. And it's about a 27% strikeout rate. At this point, I think the most likely thing is that Joe Adele is just a quad A player. But Mickey Moniac didn't even seem like a quad A player a month and a half ago.

And all of a sudden, he's a pretty big part of the Angels offense right now. So progress isn't always linear. You never know what will actually happen when it comes to guys like this. But he's certainly got talent. So we'll keep an eye on it. Not someone you're rushing out to add. But, you know, if he gets hot, It's worth worth keeping an eye on.

Yeah, and I will point out that just a rough day all around for Angels fans. I am sorry. Shohi Otani left his start with a blister on his right middle finger. He was dealing with a cracked fingernail on the same finger in his previous start. He's not going to pitch in the All-Star game. And after the game, he said he doesn't know if he's going to hit for the next couple of games. So I guess that could open up an opportunity for Joe Adele. In the short term, we'll see what he does in those games and how he builds,

off of that moving forward. How can we replace Mike Trout? Obviously, there's a lot of power there. Usually a solid batting average, lots of counting stats. So anything you find on the waiver wire is not going to be Mike Trout. But the most added outfielers recently,

the top four, T.J. Friedel, Leoti Tavaris, Tommy Fam, and Andrew McCutcheon. Names that we've talked about a lot recently, Chris, let's just remind the people. How would you rank that group? Friedel, Leotie Tavaris, Tommy Fam, Andrew McCutcheon.

I think I'd go Tavaris, fam. McCutcheon and Friedel. I think is the way I would go. It might depend on the format. McCutcheon's a little better in points leagues because his plate discipline remains very good. But overall, I think Tavares is the is the most interesting option of that group. Yeah, I liked Leodi Tavaris and Tommy fan the most. Tj. Friedel has been awesome this year. If it's speed that you're looking for, I think he's probably the answer. He's hit for a lot of batting average this season as well. But he's also the least available. He's 76% rostered on CBS. So maybe it's like a 10 or 12 team points league something shallow there for TGF.

And I will say, I know we're about to talk about it, but the best option if you need an outfielder might be Orioles prospect Colton Couser. Yep. And we will talk about him in just a little bit. Few names in deeper leagues, five outfielder leagues. I think Mickey Moniac with the way that he's played. He's someone that you can look at. He's betting 305 with a 983 OPS in the games he's played with the Angels this season. Jose Siri, still only 29% rostered, and Oscar Coloss, who was recalled on Tuesday.

He started in right field for the White Sox. He was doing some really good things in the minors as well. Chris, how do you rank that group? Five outfielder leagues, Jose Siri, Oscar Coloss, Mickey Moniac. I actually have Siri in, I believe the Tout Wars League or maybe TGFBI, one of those. And he's a fine player. I think the, you know, the underlying stats are pretty. solid for him. But I would go with Oscar Coloss here and just, you know, see if he can figure out

what we were all so excited about coming into the season. Remember, he had a 928 OPS at AA last season. Overall at AAA 306 average 894 OPS, 11 homers in 55 games. So I think there's still a solid skill set there. You know, he didn't have great plate discipline, but again, 866 OPS at AAA this season. So do not want to write Oscar Coloss off at the age of 24. Still a very talented players. So he'd be the most interesting of that group. All right. Well, we already mentioned what's going on with Shohei Otani. Hopefully the diagnosis and the news comes out okay. And he's pitching and hitting after the All-Star break. It wouldn't surprise me if they give him a couple of days off hitting there. But hopefully everything is good there with Cho He Otani because he's amazing.

And baseball is infinitely better when he is playing the sport. If you are looking for a Mike Trout replacement, can I interest you in Orioles top prospect, Colton Kouser, who will be promoted on Wednesday, 23 years old, a former first round pick back in 2021. And this year in the minors, he was batting 3.30 with 10 homers, 7 steals, a 996 OPS in 56 games.

He did miss some time with an injury. We're talking really good eye at the plate here, 18.7% walk rate in the minors this season. routinely double-digit walk rates up and down his minor league career. Does strike out a little bit, a 23% strikeout rate. It's not egregious, but you know, you probably would want that to be a little bit better in the minors as well. Chris, your thoughts on Colton Couser. Does he play every day?

I know the Orioles, they kind of have a crowded outfield. I guess it depends how good you think Aaron Hicks is and how much they're going to play him. But your thoughts on Colton Couser? Yeah, there are some definite questions about what the playing time's going to look like they're obviously, you know, two, two all stars in the outfield. Cedric Mullins. I don't think I actually made the all star game this year, but Austin Hayes did and Cedron's, I'm assuming has made an all star game. I actually guess I don't know for sure, but that sounds like something that's happened for Cedric Mullins. And then you've got right field, which has been

a lot of Aaron Hicks lately or Anthony Santander. However, I didn't notice Anthony Santander has first based eligibility now in fantasy. He's played five. games there. And I do wonder if the answer here might be, you know, Hicks and Kouser primarily play right field. You know, Kouser has experience playing center field. So the outfield defense should benefit from him being there. Hicks also has been a good defender in his career. And so, you know, I do wonder if that's the way they go where it's maybe Hicks plays a little more D.H. Maybe Kouser D.H is some. And Santander plays a little more first. base. We kind of push Ryan O'Hern out until, of course, Ryan Moutcastle comes back. I'll

believe he started his rehab assignment the last few days or is about to start a rehab assignment. So there are, uh, there are some definite playing time concerns here for Kouser. I would guess they're calling him up to play right away. The other thing I'll point out is the plate discipline is good overall. He strikes out a lot against lefties. Last season against Lefties across three levels. He had a 34% strikeout rate, 616 OPS. This season, the OPS is much better. It's 903 against lefties.

However, 19 strikeouts and 59 plate appearances. That comes out to about a 32% strikeout rate. So I do think there are real platoon risks with Colton Kouser. and you look at the minor league stat-cast data and it's good but not great. It's like an 89.9.9 mile per hour average exit velocity, 110 mile per hour max exit velo. That's good, but it's not necessary.

Like I worry that Colton Couser has a little bit of Brandon Fought. It's not going to go out that poorly, I think, but like where we've been talking about him so much because the proximity to the majors is there, that it's like, are we overseeing? stating the likelihood of like a high end outcome. That's my concern with Colton Couser. I think he's someone you should absolutely add because,

you know, it's a good lineup and he's got the opportunity and the prospect pedigree and the minor league numbers are good. But I just, I'm not convinced he's going to be a difference maker for fantasy. I agree with you on the platoon splits. And I do worry a little bit about maybe he doesn't play against left-handed pitching. The Brandon Fott thing, I don't know if I completely buy in there. I think Colton Couser is a different level of prospect. I mean, fifth overall pick back in 2021.

Just looked up Brandon and thought he was a fifth round pick. So I think there's different expectations here. He's a much better prospect. I hear what you're saying with the exit velocities, but like all he's done is hit in the minors, right? Sure, absolutely. Really good play discipline. So I don't want to sell him short, but you're right.

I think there could be some playing time concerns, at least from the jump here on Colton Couser. Just comparing him to those other names that we mentioned, the T. J. Friedels, Leoddy Tavaris. Tommy Pham, Andrew McCutcheon. Does Colton Kouser jump to the front of that group? I think that's fine. I think it's likelier given the way Laudy Tavaris has played that he's better.

Yeah. But if you have to choose, there's also, you always have to consider not just who's the likely, likely to be the best player, but the opportunity risk of not adding someone. Laity Tavares has been a really good player for like, what, a month and a half, two months now. And he's still only 69% roster. Colton Couser's probably going to get pretty close to there, whether he does anything in the next couple of days or not, just because he's such a big name prospect.

So I think if you have to make a choice, there's more risk that this is the last chance you have to get Couser on your team. These were some of the questions I got on Twitter regarding Colton Couser. Would I drop these players for him? Someone asked T.J. Friedel. Would you jot T.J. Friedel for Colton Couser. Somebody asked me Luis Matos. Would you make that move?

I don't think so. I think I'd rather have Matos. That one's close. I know the data for Matos hasn't looked good. He's more likely to play every day. I think I would leave with Kouser, but it is close. Someone asked, drop Jordan Westberg, his teammate for a Colton Kouser. I don't think so, but obviously, you know, it could come down to if you need an outfielder versus a shortstop.

I think Westberg is more likely to play every day, but I think Kouser's upside is higher. So I guess weigh those things on a per at-bat, per. poor game basis. I think Kouser could be better. A couple that I got that I said yes to were drop Jared Kalenick or Cody Bellinger for Colton Kouser. Oh, geez. You know, I like those guys in terms of the upside, but neither of them has really done anything in the last two months.

Bellinger really hasn't done anything in the last two months. So I think I'd be fine with that. But I think that's the type of like, I think Bellinger and Kalenick and Kalenik especially has more upside than Kouser. probably, but, you know, I'm fine making that swap, given how bad Bellinger and Kalenik have been. I feel better about doing it for Kelnick, especially in a shallow league. It's just Kelnick has been really bad for quite some time. Cody Bellinger, I did have him

on the rundown a little bit later on. And in 16 games since returning from the IL, he's batting 3.04 for what it's worth, over 300 with zero homers. So there's not really much pop there, but he is hitting for some batting average. That is Cody Bellinger. close call there, but Colton Couser getting the call on Wednesday. We'll see what his playing time is moving forward. He's 35% rostered and could very likely be your Mike Trout replacement if you had Mike Trout on your fantasy team. The other, gosh, there was so much big news. Alec Menoa will return to the Blue Jays and start Friday against the Tigers, which is a great matchup in his first start back. The Tigers are 28th in Wobah against right-handed pitching this

season. And in Manoa's last start at AA, his best start of the season, five innings of one run ball, 10 strikeouts. The problem still had three walks over five innings, which has been a big issue for Alec Manoa all season long. He's 68% rostered. Chris, are you rushing to the waiver wire to go get Alec Menoa on your team for his return on Friday? He is not my single most high priority waiver wire ad right now, because I would rather have Tarek Scouble in the leagues where both are available.

But yeah, I think Mnoyne, Noah pretty much has to be viewed as a must-add player. I mean, as much as I like Terrick's Google, I think it's really unlikely he has a season as good as either of the previous two seasons that Alec Manoa has had. So if he can get back to that kind of upside at all, I think you have to. And the fact that, I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm certainly surprised he was recalled this quickly.

I mean, the start at double A was very good 10 strikeouts. But, you know, we all saw the start at the Florida Complex League where he gave up like 11 hits in three innings or something or 11 runs in three innings. And so, I mean, they didn't care about the results there, clearly. Clearly, it was just we wanted him to work for two weeks. We identified some mechanical issues. We worked on them in that game. And then we sent him to double A.

And that was the one where we were looking at the results. That's clearly how the Blue Jays are viewing this. And the fact that they came away impressed enough to call him back up says to me that he should be better than he has been. Whether he can rediscover, you know, top three Siong finish level, I think is unlikely. But there aren't pitchers with this kind of upside on the waiver wire in July. It just doesn't happen. There might not be pitchers with this much downside on the waiver wire based on how Alec Mnoyah has pitched. And again, nothing is guaranteed here, but just that glimmer of hope, that chance that

he could return to form what we saw last year when he was a top three Siong candidate in the American League. Alec Manoa returning this Friday, he is 68% rostered. You said you would take Terrick Scoobel over him. Chris, would you take Brian Wu over Alec Manoa? He's someone that the Welsh and I spoke a lot about yesterday. He looked really good in his start on Monday. No, I think Wu is a very talented pitcher, but I saw today, actually, that there is going to be an inning's limit for him at some point. I don't know if it's they're going to just shut him down or move him to the bullpen or skip starts or whatever. But he's already, I think, 15 to 20 inning. over his total from last season, if I'm remembering that correctly.

And so there's probably going to be, you know, maybe another month where he's useful, but I think that's probably about it for Brian Wu. So as much as I like him, yeah, I think he's clearly behind those guys and probably more in like the Kentomaieta range. Of course, the Welsh and I waxed poetic about Brian Wu and how great he's been and all these whiffs he's getting. And then, of course, that report that you mentioned,

Brian Wu expected to be shut down at some point in the second half of the season. He's up to 72 and two-thirds innings this season between the majors and minors. Last year, he only threw 57 innings in the minor. So he's already 15 past that. Maybe he gets hard capped at like 100, 120, something like that. Yeah, I think like 115, 120 is probably like the absolute max. All right. I missed this on Monday night, but Tyro Estrada was placed on the aisle with a fractured left hand.

He was hit by a pitch on Sunday. and is expected to miss four to six weeks as well. Another huge loss. He was batting 272 with nine home runs and 18 steals this season. The 52nd overall player in Roto, he was averaging 3.2 fantasy points per game in points leagues as well. The most added middle infielders on CBS right now, Hassan Kim, Ezekiel Tovar, Michael Garcia, and Jordan Westberg.

Jordan Westberg, by the way, went two for four with a double on Tuesday. Chris, how would you rank those middle infielder? Kim Tovar, Michael Garcia, Westberg. I think I would go. This is another one where like, I think Tovar will probably be better than Jordan Westberg rest of the way. But again, Ezekiel Tovar has been really good

for like basically the last two months. He had an awful April, but since the start of May, I haven't updated in a few days, but when I looked on Sunday, his 162 game pace since the start of May was like, 25 homers, a 280 batting average, 90 runs, 100 RBI, and 12 steals or something. He would have been awesome.

So I think he's likelyer to be better than Jordan Westberg, but Westberg's already more rostered. So this is, again, probably your last chance to add Jordan Westberg if you don't. Yeah, I think Tovar and Westberg are probably at the top of the list. I really like what Hassan Kim has done as well. And he's been leading off for the Padres, a lineup I keep expecting to get going. And it's just not happening. they, for some reason, cannot get everybody going at the same time this season.

It's been very frustrating. If it's speed that you're looking for in particular, because Tyro Esrata does provide a lot of speed. Michael Garcia does make some sense there. So it's Westberg and Tovar up at the top. If you need speed, Michael Garcia and Hassan Kim, sorry, bud. I don't think you make the cut, but I do like what he's doing. Although, like, I noticed the other day, he's like third in the majors

in Winds Above Replacement at Baseball. reference. He's on, he's, he has four wins already. He's good. He's having a great season. He's good defensively. He's walked a lot this year. The OB play in everywhere, yeah. Solid for Hassan Kim and a little bit of power, a little bit of speed. Frankly, I don't think any of those options are bad. So if you lost Tyro Estrada, I think you're probably in good shape if you can get one of those four names. What about if you play in a deeper league, Nick Gonzalez, Andy Abagnas, Gene Seguera, these are names. You're probably looking at in 14 team leagues or deeper, anything like that. Chris, anyone stand out for you there from

group. Gonzalez is probably the most. He's got some prospect pedigree, not huge prospect pedigree, but he's a weird player because you look at the minor league numbers and it's like he's got an 820 OPS between AAA and double A basically. It's like 815 maybe, but it's like a 260th batting average and it's between both levels. It's like 13 homers and 130 games or something and like 15 steals or whatever the numbers are exactly. Those are the ballpark. And it's like, the 820 OPS sounds better than everything else does.

And so it might be one of those ones where his games just not fine tuned for fantasy production. But among this group, I think the Nick Gonzalez of the Pirates is probably the most interesting. Yep. And Nick Gonzalez went three for four with two doubles and two RBI on Tuesday. He is batting 314 with a 98 OPS early on here with the Pirates. I think he's at the top of the Gene Seguera, he's doing some nice things recently. His last seven games batting 308 with a home run and a steal. He was a productive player the past couple of years, and he's been mostly awful this year,

but maybe he can reclaim some of that old form that we know Gene Seguer to have. Let's take our first break, and when we return, we'll hit some Waverwire pitchers. We'll talk about Terrick Scoobel. We'll do all that right after this. Welcome back, and if you are interested in buying some fantasy baseball today merch, you can do exactly that at the Paramount Shop, which offers a mountain of merch

from the Paramount shows and movies that you love. Scan the QR code in the top right corner if you're watching on YouTube or head to paramountshop.com, Paramount Shop, where products are paramount. Let's talk some Waverwire pitchers. Terrick Scouble was pumping gas in his season debut up against the Oakland A's

four no-hit innings with six strikeouts, nine swinging strikes on 57 pitches. that is a 15.8% swinging strike rate, and his fastball was up 2.3 miles per hour, sinker up over 3 miles per hour compared to last year. So it was easy gas coming from Terik's Cooble in his season debut. Ketamayeta turned in his first quality start of the season

up against the Royals, seven innings, two runs. Only one of those earned with nine strikeouts and 15 swinging strikes. Kyle Hendricks now has three quality starts in a row. He was at the Brewers. Six innings, two runs, one earned with five strikeouts for him. And J.P. Sears has just quietly pitched very well this year at the Tigers, seven and a third shutout with four strikeouts and 15 swinging strikes for him.

Chris, I think I know your answer, but how are you ranking this group? Scoobel, Maeda, Hendricks, and Sears. Yeah, scoble is a clear number one. Remember, he, before the flexor strain injury, he was having a really good 2022 season, 352 ERA, 334 XERA. And the biggest change there, his fastball went from world historically disastrously bad in 2021. He gave up a 611 slugging percentage and it was actually lucky,

according to the expected stats, to have a number that bad. And then last year, it just became a regular normal, not great fastball. And then that was huge for him. And now, you know, he's added two to two. and a half miles per hour with that pitch.

So I think there's significant upside here if the strikeout rate ticks up. Obviously, you know, 12 swinging strikes today on only 57 or nine swinging strikes on only 57 pitches. It's a very good rate. They'll unleash him a little more in the second half. And I think he could be absolutely a difference maker down the stretch. I think he could be a top 40 starting pitcher the rest of the way. if he stays healthy.

So he's the clear number one. I think he should be rostered everywhere. And after that, I think I would give my A to the edge on Hendricks just because the strikeouts have been there. The three starts since coming back from the IL. I think it's trying to remember. I wrote about it earlier.

Sorry, I think 21 strikeouts in three starts since coming back. Yeah, 21 strikeouts and three starts since coming back. it's only like 17 innings, so it's a very good per inning number. Slider and Splitter both look very good today. 12 swinging strikes on those two pitches. So I would give my end a little bit of an edge over Hendrix. I think it's probably a ceiling versus floor thing.

And then Sears, I just, I don't really buy it. I know the results have been pretty good, but the XERA is 483 for the season. He doesn't really get a lot of strikeouts. So I'm okay kind of fading J.P. Sears. Okay. And I think I mostly agree with your order. I would go scubal, Maida, Hendricks, and J.P. Sears. Kyle Hendricks, while he's, he looks like vintage Kyle Hendricks. He is limiting walks. He's limiting

hard contact. He's doing a great job. Love what we've seen. 2.64 ERA, a 0.94 whip. But I do think there will be some regression at some point because his home run to fly ball ratio is 3.4%. That's 11.6% for his career and his BABIP currently, even with allowing hard, without limiting hard contact, 224 BABIP is really, really low. So the thing with Kyle Hendricks is his expected Wobon contact, which is just balls in play, at his peak was between 335 and 360. Right now, it's 339. That's an incredibly good number, whether it's 350 or whether it's 339.

The problem is you say he's, he looks like vintage Kyle Hendricks. Kyle Hendricks never got a lot of strikeouts, but his strikeout rate at his peak was like 20%. He had five straight, six straight seasons between 20 and 23%. He was actually not far from being an average strikeout pitcher. This year, it's down to 13.3%. So I do think there's definitely some regression coming. I think he can probably be a high threes ERA guy moving forward, but certainly not the guy he once was. He's useful, but not must roster. All right. Let's quickly talk about

Emmett Sheehan because he had his first real rough outing of the season and it came up against the pirates of all teams. Three and two-thirds innings. Five runs allowed, four walks to four strikeout. So was a little bit wild in this one. Allowed a lot of hard contact as well, 95.9 average exit velocity against for Emmett Sheehan. And he's kind of a tough pitcher to evaluate early on here, Chris. He's not getting a lot of whiffs, not getting a lot of a lot of strikeouts. The walks have been high. He gives up a lot of fly balls. So it seems like eventually there's probably going to be home runs coming against Emmett Sheehan as well. Would you drop him for any of the names we just talked about?

I would hope that I have, I mean, knowing my teams, I certainly have players who I have less faith or I don't know if faith is the real. Well, it's weird. Faith is a weird word because I think that is the right word for for Sheen. I don't have a lot of confidence that he's going to be an ace moving forward, but there is some faith that he could be that. It's just that right now we haven't really seen what that would look like, right? The change up with rate is 36%. That's very good.

27.6% on the slider. That's iffy. But he certainly hasn't shown the massive upside we saw at AA this season where he had 88 strikeouts and 53 innings. So if I have to rank them, them rest of season, I'm going to rank Terrick Scoobel ahead of him. And I'm probably, who was the other. Kent and Maeda? No.

What about Alec, Alec Menoa? Yeah. I would probably rank Alec Meno and Tarek Scuba ahead of him. Certainly scoble. I have more confidence in him. Manoa more of an upside play. But because we haven't seen a ton of upside from Sheehan yet in terms of the swing

strike rate and the strikeouts, you know, I'd put him below those guys. But I would hope, again, that I have someone worse. or at least with less upside. All right. I don't think this. Andrew. Sorry. That's what I want to remind ourselves is that Emma Sheen hasn't shown strikeout upside yet.

Andrew Abbott didn't show strikeout upside. His first three starts and then he has 30 in his last three. So again, like we talked about on Sunday nights podcast, don't want to talk about young players as if they are finished products. We haven't seen it from Sheehan yet, but I don't want to give up on the upside. the potential of it. Yeah, no, I think that's totally fair. And a good reminder on Emmett Sheehan. Don't think this matters very much, but quick thoughts.

Anything on Brandon Belak, who pitched very well in his return to the Astros? He was facing the Rockies through seven shutout innings with four strikeouts and did change his pitch mix in this one. He basically scrapped his slider completely. He threw a lot more curve balls in this outing. Chris, anything here? Does this matter? Brandon Belak pitching well?

I don't really think so. I mean, his change-up's actually a very good pitch. So, you know, I don't want to say there's nothing there, but I think it was probably just the Colorado Rockies are not very good. Yeah, and this star was in Houston. So I think that makes perfect sense as well. Do any of these waiver wire hitters matter for fantasy? Obviously, they matter.

They're humans. They're awesome. I'm sure they're great people. But Chris, I'm just going to go one by one. You tell me if these names matter for fantasy. The first one is Ahmed Rosario, who went three for four, with his second home run of the season. And over his last 25 games, he's batting 3.46. That's awesome.

16 runs, 18 RBI, one homer and one steel. So it's just kind of empty batting average right now. Chris, does Ahmed Rosario matter in fantasy? Yeah, even the RBI and run numbers are, they're fine. Yeah. But, you know, for hitting 350 over a 25 game stretch, it's a little underwhelming. I tend to think that we know what Ahmed Rosario is. And even when things are going well, you know,

like he's not running as much as we hoped he would with the new rules. And so I, I generally think he is what he is. And it's an empty batting average when things are going well. So not super excited to add him. Yeah, I think he needs to remain rostered in deeper roto leagues with middle infield spots. And he's someone that could catch fire and go on these crazy runs. so I'm not going to rule out the possibility, but even in 12-team leagues,

I don't think you need to go there yet with Ahmed Rosario. Brett Beat Beatty went two-for-four with a run scored and over his last 16 games. He's betting 304 with one homer and one steal, only two walks to 18 strikeouts. He's hitting the ball very hard, but also lots of ground balls. And Chris, Brett Beatty feels like the latest young player

that for years moving forward, we're just going to beg him to raise his launch angle. and I don't know if it's going to happen. So I don't know. Yeah, I mean, that was the concern as a prospect. And he had started to show signs of figuring that out. But he was hitting a lot of ground balls in the minors as well. So yeah, that's a little bit of a concern.

Again, another player I like having a round for upside, but not a must roster player. James Outman went two for three with a double dong. His first home run, not just his first two, his first homer since May 17. James Outman has been in an extended slump. He's betting only 237. Still 54% rostered. Chris, does this matter? It matters in as much as it's a reminder that he exists and a reason to not drop him. Like I added him in one of my leagues where he got dropped just in case, you know, and maybe he can get hot. He's now had multiple hits in two of the last three games. I think he, did he sit one of those or did the Dodgers not play? sorry, yeah, they didn't play on Monday.

So he started, yeah, if you were not inclined to drop him, I think this is a decent reason for it. But like, I would drop him for Colton Kouser. Absolutely. Yeah. I had him in a few five outfielder leagues, even a 15 team league. I had him in the NFBC. And we dropped him, I think, either late May or early June. And I haven't really thought about picking him back up.

I'd put him in the same, Kalnick. Bellinger category that did earlier. It's been a very similar story. I think his success might have, Outman's success might have lasted a little longer, and then the fall was a little harder. But yeah, I don't see a ton to get excited about there.

All right, Jaron Duran went two for three with a double and a triple, both over 110 exit velocity. Crazy hard hits there from Jaron. He's 42% rostered, but he's not playing every day. So that's an issue right now, Chris. Does Jaron Duran matter for Finns?

Yeah, it's really hard to be valuable when you're a platoon player. You know, this is kind of what we're running into with Josh Lowe, who I think is a better version of that. But they kind of look pretty similar right now, right? Josh Lowe has more power. For sure. But the overall numbers are probably not that dissimilar, more batting average for Duran and probably more speed. I'd like to see him get more of a chance against lefties, but he's got 12 strikeouts and 36 plate. So I don't see it's it's not like he's forcing it when he's had the opportunity. So I, uh, I think this is about as valuable as Jaronne Duran's going to get. There was a report on Tuesday that Adam Duval is kind of falling into a short side platoon role. So maybe Duran plays a little bit more moving forward. Uh, he wasn't even playing against every right. He just, yeah, he's kind of been playing every other game, every third game. But, you know, maybe he will play more against right hand to pitching. He's forcing their hand right now. Yeah.

Yeah, he's absolutely crushing the ball and not much power recently, but some extra base hits. And whenever he gets on, it seems like Jared Duran is often running. Two names in deeper leagues. Do you think they matter, Chris? Corey Jolks went four for five with a double in RBI and his 14th steel. He has just quietly been racking up hits and steals. He had three hard hits in this game.

And over his last 12 games, Corey Jolks is betting 378 with a homer and four steals. The other name is Mike Ford, who went forward. for five with two doubles and his seventh home run, just a completely random stat. He became this seventh player in MLB history with four plus hits, three of those being extra base hits on his birthday. So, happy birthday, Mike Ford. He celebrates the same birthday as you, Chris. Do either of these names matter, Mike Ford and Corey Jolts? No, the other fun Mike Ford stat that I had the other day was he's had a bunch of hits since then, but as of I think last Thursday,

he had nine hits and seven of them were home runs. So he's had a bunch of non-home run hits in the last week or so, which is great for him. No, I think especially Mike Ford doesn't matter. I think Corey Jolks, you know, the speed, I don't know if there's much more beyond a 262 batting average or what. No, he's up to 274 now. I think this is probably the ceiling.

But like 260 in Steele's bases, that's not a terrible player. It's just, you know, not super exciting. Corey Jolks last year in the minors. Granted, an older player, I think he was 26 years old at AAA last year. He hit 270 with 31 homers and 22 steals. So yeah, there is a little bit of power and speed there. I think if you're playing a very deep, good play discipline, yeah. A very deep five alpha league.

You can do worse than Corey Jolks right now. Let's hit some news and notes. Corbyn Carroll was back in the lineup Tuesday. And of course, what did he do? he hit a home run off of Max Scherzer. I would say, uh, after, after Scherzer struck out the first two matters of the game.

The, the battles between those two were really fun today. Yeah. Uh, hopefully the shoulder is fine. It looked pretty good on Tuesday for Corbyn Carroll. Aaron Judge has begun doing some hitting off of a tea and taking soft toss. Uh,

he also said he's walking around a little bit better, but admits his injured toe still does not feel great. And I don't know if this is just the pessimistic Yankee fan of me, Chris, but I just kind of feel like this isn't going to end well for judge, at least this season, right? He's going to try and come back. He's going to try and rehab, and maybe he plays for a few weeks and he's not himself. I just, with everything that we know, even with resting, it hasn't really gotten much better. I just feel like this is going to be a problem until the offseason when they can address it then. And it's a problem because

he's a gigantic human being. I mean, he's 280 pounds or something. something he's massive, just tall and large. And the Yankees don't really have the ability to play him at DH. I think that's the biggest problem. It's not just, you know, letting the injury heal, but it's like he's going to have, he's pretty much going to have to play the outfield. And he's going to have to stand on that toe and he's going to have to, you know, run multiple times per inning and all the things that go along with that. And it's just that is a lot of stress to put. on a very serious injury. Turf toe sounds cute.

It's incredibly painful. Anybody who's ever had turf toe will tell you. It's one of the most painful injuries that professional athletes deal with. It's a bad injury. Is this turf toe? I believe this is a turf toe injury. I know he has a,

I think it's a torn ligament in his toe. Is that the same thing as turf toe? Yeah, Turftoe is specifically how Steinbrenner likened it to Turftoe. Okay. So yeah. I asked Scott recently if turf toe was on your foot or in your foot. I believe turf toe is a torn ligament in your big toe.

I think that's what turf toe is specifically. The fantasy baseball today Facebook group, they were all making fun of me because I didn't know what turf toe was. I didn't know there's just common knowledge. I don't know. A metatarsopulangial joint sprain. An injury to the connective tissue between the foot and the toe. So it's where the toe.

and the foot meat. And when it's your big toe, it is a turf toe injury. I thought it was. Maybe it's not the big toe for him. But either way, it's a not good injury. I think you were going to say either way, it is a big toe because it's on errandage. Well, yes.

Also, I'm sure he wears like size 16 shoes. It's probably a big toe either way. I still blame the Dodgers. It's, why do you have a big cement block going around the outfield of your stadium? It's just, it's the big toe. It's like old and outdated. I don't, I don't get it.

Anyway, I blame the Dodgers. Hopefully, I'm wrong. Hopefully, Judge comes back and he's awesome. Jose Altovae was scratched Tuesday due to left oblique discomfort. He missed four games in early June with a similar injury, and sounds like it might be lingering a little bit. Max Free through live batting practice Tuesday and will be re-evaluated Wednesday. He's been out since early May with a left forearm strain.

Frember Valdez has been clear to start Thursday against the Mariners, and he missed his previous start this past weekend due to a sprained right ankle. It's a little frustrating. I benched him. Same thing. You had to. If we weren't going to know, I mean, there's, there's no way. I have a deeper league where I benched him from Michael Waka and then Waka went on the IL. Oh, that's, that's rough. I actually think I benched him for, uh, for Kyle Hendricks. So that, that worked out. Okay. That did work out pretty well. Jazz Chisholm, as we suspected, not great, diagnosed with a, actually the news is a little bit better than we thought.

Diagnosed with a mild oblique strain and we'll be sideline for at least that. next couple of weeks, but frankly, it could have been worse. Dustin May will undergo season-ending surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right elbow. And it sounds like he'll miss the first month or two of next season as well. Yeah, the timing is similar to Terrick Scoobel, I believe, around this time last year was when Scoobel had his injury. So, so he might even miss the first three months of next season, Dustin May. You Darvish is aiming to rejoin the Padres rotation this weekend against the Mets. He has not pitched since June 21st due to an

illness that caused him to lose seven pounds. Not great. Chris, sorry. Just Territus's injury was about he had surgery about a month and a half after. So yeah, it could be like a May for Dustin May next year. Chris Sale is on an every other day throwing program and is feeling good. He's not eligible to return until early August. Brandon Lau was activated off the IL and was batting sixth Tuesday against that's one we didn't mention. But in that discussion, of middle infielders. Brandon Lau,

I'd put in the, in that Ezekiel Tovar, and he's rostered around the same rate. I think he's 63% or something like that. That's surprising, actually. He's probably not going to play every day. They talked about that today. That they're probably going to limit his playing time,

but he's, you know, he was awesome in April, you know, looked like 2021 Brandon Lau, and then the back issues cropped up. So if he's healthy, I think Brandon Lowe's still good.

Back injuries are tough, man. We've seen it with Clayton Kirshaw. It's, you know, this is something that can kind of knock you out for multiple years. Absolutely. We'll see. We'll monitor with Brandon Lau. Michael Walker was placed in the aisle with right shoulder inflammation. Retroactive to July 2nd, he's been battling this shoulder injury for the past couple weeks.

Liam Hendricks will throw a bullpen session this weekend. He's been out since early June with right elbow inflammation. Michael Kopeck is expected to return to the White Sox rotation after. After the All-Star break, they placed him on the IL a couple days ago to give him extended rest. We mentioned Brian Wu could get shut down in the second half. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he's considered moving Anthony Volpe back up to the leadoff spot with how well he's been hitting since mid-June. Nessor Cortez is on track for a live batting practice session on Sunday.

He's been out for the past month with a strained rotator cuff. Anthony Descalfani was placed in the aisle with right shoulder fatigue. Madrigal placed on the IL with a right hamstring strain. Jose Katana scheduled to make another rehab start Friday at AAA. Adam Wainwright was placed in the IL with right shoulder inflammation, aka getting destroyed by the Miami Marlins inflammation. Zach Ranky left Tuesday start due to right shoulder discomfort. Nelson Cruz was designated for assignment by the Padres.

And Philly's top prospect, Andrew Painter did not throw live batting practice on Tuesday because of some stiffness. he's been dealing with a sprained UCL since March. Does not sound good for him. I'm... I think we'll see him in 2024. I know. I don't want to like, you know...

I understand why the Phillies don't want a 19 or 20 year old to go under the knife, but it just kind of feels like it's going to end that way at some point anyway, so I don't know. I hope I'm wrong. I hope, again, I'm kind of pessimistic when it comes to this stuff. I hope Andrew Painter doesn't need to have surgery. Let's take our final break, and when we return,

we'll get into the rest of all the stuff that happened on July 4th here on Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back, and a big thank you to everyone watching us live on YouTube. It's well past 1 a.m. Eastern time. We have over 400 people here hanging out. It was, you know, we just wrapped up July 4th. I'm sure everyone had a great time.

Do your thing. Drink some drinks, eat some food. But we're happy that you're here hanging out with us. Like this video and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Three massive pitching performances from Tuesday. Arindola, this is what we've been waiting for. And it's so, it's almost frustrating because you know how good he can be and he goes into Tampa Bay and pitches this well.

Seven in a third innings, one run allowed, 12 strikeouts for Aranola. Great performance in this one. Logan Gilbert tossed the first shutout, the first complete game of his career. He was at the Giants. He allowed five hits with seven strikeouts and a career high, 22 swinging strikes. And the other name is Joe Musgrove, who has now turned in five straight quality starts.

He was facing the Angels, seven innings of one-run ball with 11 strikeouts, and 25 swinging strikes, his most in a start since April 19th of 2021. Chris, three big names here, Joe Musgrove, Logan Gilbert, and Aaron Nola. Yeah, Nola, we'll start with, he just, I don't know, he goes through these stretches, right? And it's,

it's always frustrating when it happens. This year's been a little different because the strikeouts are way down. Strikeout rate was down to 23% coming into this start. That's, that's a significant difference. It was 29% last season. Wiff rate on his curveball was down. I tend to think in looking at some of the data that there might have been just a mechanical issue that maybe he's sorted out. So hopefully that's the case. Musgroves are really, really tough player to handicap right now because we know he's dealing with this bursitis issue in his elbow and it's the type of issue that likely won't lead to a more severe injury or at least as long as he's not compensating for it right it's more about managing

pain than than getting worse but we don't know how much that's affecting him I'm having a really hard time figuring out where to put Musgrave in my rankings. He's in like the 20 range and I think that's higher than it is for you, right? I think I have him at 26 or 27, something like that. But it feels like he probably deserves to be higher than that. Yeah, I have him 15. I have him at 27, but for example, I have you Darvish at 17 and Darvish has been really bad this year. year. Like, yeah. There's a discussion for me to swap those guys. Put Musgrove top 20 and lower

Darvish. Musgrove's strikeout rate as low as it's been since 2018. So it's not like he's actually been great this season. He's been really up and down just like a lot of the guys in that range. It's been a really hard year to rank starting pitchers. But, you know, the last couple of starts, especially last three starts, we're starting to see the strikeouts come back. Hopefully that's a harbinger of things to come for Musgrove. Anything that you. Anything that you, you would like to add on Logan Gilbert, career high, 22 swinging strikes in the first complete game of his career. I think it's probably unlikely that this is the start of him being a big swing and miss pitcher.

It's just not a significant part of his game, but he's good. You know, I think even like the 419 or 382 ERA right now after this start, he's better than that. His XERA coming into this start was 356. He's not an elite strikeout pitcher, but he does a decent job with hard contact. He doesn't allow a lot of walks. I think it all points to a solid mid-3s ERA for Logan Gilbert.

And specifically in this start, the velocity was up on the fastball and the slider. They were up over one mile per hour. So good news there for Logan Gilbert. I think he's been a little bit unlucky this season. I think from here on out, I would probably expect something closer to a mid-3s-ERA for Logan. Gilbert. Chris, I know that you love arbitrary starting and endpoints here. So I have a little segment filled with a bunch of different hitters with different time frames of where they've played well.

I am disappointed by the absence of one name because he actually has a non-arbitrary endpoint. And I'm sure you talked about it yesterday with Anthony Volpe. Yes, we did. We did talk about the chicken parm dinner. Absolutely did. Good, good, good. Okay. Because that's the kind of non-arbitrary. points we like. Get out of here with these arbitrary M points.

Anytime that a good old chicken parm dinner can turn. Anytime we can talk about chicky, chicky, parm parm. Turn your career around. Yeah, we've got to use that to, we've definitely got to talk about that. But anyway, let's talk about some of these hitters. I'll bring them up.

Chris, if you have something to add, fine, if not, we'll move on to the next player. Bobby Witt Jr. went two for four with his 13th home run. And since the start of June, 30 games, he is batting 307 with three homers. and eight steals. The batting average and the speed is obviously very fun. We need more power.

That's what we need. The flip might have been switched. I will say might because if you look at the underlying metrics, last season, Bobby Witt played right to his underlying metrics. He had a 311 Wobah and a 313 expected Wobah, 252 batting average or 252 average 252XBA. This year, he looks like he looks like he. hasn't really taken a step forward at all.

The surface level numbers look basically identical to last season. But the underlying numbers are a lot better. Expected Wobah on contact is up from 377 to 428 this year. Last year it was about average. This year it's significantly above average. XBA 286 X-SLG 504. There are very, very good signs that a Bobby Witt breakout is happening. quality of contact metrics way up, and it's not necessarily being captured in the production yet.

So that's, I feel like I was, I ragged on him a little bit last week, but he's, the data looks pretty good for him. And because he plays for the Royals, we really don't hear much about Bobby Wood Jr. But he is on pace for the quietest, what, 25, 40 season? Yeah. It's like, that's a really, really good season. He's doing it with a lower batting average, 251 or 254 now. But look, if you buy those expected stats, then maybe it could be like a 270 batting average by the end of the season.

William Contreras went 2 for 4 with a run and RBI. He has three straight multi-hit games. And over his last 23 games, he's betting 291 with three homers. He's hitting the ball really hard. The problem is a lot of it is on the ground. Yeah, and that's less of a concern when you're talking about a catcher. right? Because it's like the bar is really, really low. It's something that we've, you know, I did a podcast for FFT on the Falcons. And it was talking about Kyle Pitts versus Drake London. Physically, they're very similar players, same offense, all that stuff. Just take the tight end. The guy who if he gets 800 yards and five touchdowns is going to be a top five guy. That's kind of the thing with willing contrar is where it's like, oh, I'd like him to hit the ball in the air more. But I'm not really going to harp on it because he's a catcher. He's still a top 10 guy for me. All right, Danesby Swanson went two for six with his 10th home run.

And over his last 18 games, he's batting 284 with four homers. He's not hitting the ball very hard, but when he does, he's doing a good job of barreling the ball. That is Danesby Swanson. Chris, any thoughts on him? Sorry, I got distracted by a comment that says, I like the Christ's Tower's thumbnail. He looks very sexy. He got distracted. No, not really have, don't really have much to add on Danesby Swanson.

I struggled with his slow start to the season because so much of last season was a bit of an outlier, but he's still remained in like the 125 overall range. It's just there are so many good short stops right now that he's fallen in the shortstop rankings, less because of concern about him than just other guys passing him. The last name on this list is Mani Machado, who went three for three with a walk, two runs and an RBI. and in three games, 30 games since returning from the IL, he is batting 282 with six home runs,

18 runs scored, and 19 RBI, which sounds a lot like what we should expect from Manny Machado. Yeah, his overall numbers and expected numbers are still pretty mediocre, but I've said it all along. With a player like Manny Machado with the track record that he has, I don't worry too much about the expected stats because it's more likely that it's just a slump.

Like when the expected numbers are bad for Manny Machado, I'm much more likely to think, yeah, but he's going to be fine because he's Mani Machado. He'll tinker something in his swing. He'll start hitting the ball hard and he'll be fine. So I haven't really, he's another guy that I haven't really moved down very much at all. All right. Let's wrap up here with some leftovers.

And we'll start with the pitching side of things. Jesus Lazzardo has now thrown three straight. scoreless outings. He was facing the Cardinals on Tuesday, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts for him. Dane Dunning has turned in four straight quality starts. I'm not exactly sure how he's doing it, but he is doing it at the Red Sox, six innings of one run ball with four strikeouts for Dane Dunning and Zach Eflin, another strong start up against the Phillies, seven innings, two runs, nine strikeouts to zero walks with 17 swinging strikes. Chris, anything on Eflin, Dane Dunning, and Jesus Lozardo.

Bethlyn's good. He's really good. Yeah, that's one I really didn't give enough credit to coming into the season. I have him on one or two teams, but I wish it was more. Lazzardo's really good as well. I do wonder he's got to be very close to last year's innings total. He's actually surpassed last year's innings total. He's already thrown a career high at the major league level, if I'm looking at it correctly.

Knock on wood, Chris. The Marlins are going, well, no, it's just that. you know, there might be a point where they have to skip him as well. This is a Marlins rotation that doesn't really have a lot of guys that have thrown deep into the season. So it's going to be interesting to see how they handle that. Dunning, I will just, I don't know, maybe it's just Bryce Elder. Again, the AL version of Bryce Elder. And I'm just going to keep being wrong about him.

But I don't think there's anything here. Chris, I do have a request. I'm looking at your starting pitcher rankings. You have Zach Eflin at 56. That's too low. So let's get him. Yeah, he should be in like the top. Top 40. Yeah, yeah, that's what we're talking about. Yeah, Zach Eflin, he's been awesome.

You know who was not awesome? Shane Bieber, you know, of course, last time out, I tried to give him a compliment. I said he was doing some nice things. The loss he was up a little bit. Swinging strikes had been a little bit better recently, and you know how he repays me. He was crap. It's against the Atlanta Braves, obviously. It's a really tough matchup. Four and two-thirds innings, four runs aloud. He was very wild in this one, five walks to four strikeouts. Chris, anything on Shane Bieber, a bad outing. No, like you, I was optimistic about his last few outings because the swing strike rates had been up. The strikeouts had been there. The last, I think, three outings before this one. So hopefully it's just a bump in the road. But obviously, it's been more bump than road. So far. You know, it's been like the shoulder has all the divvits. So that like when you like doze off and you drive off the road, you like get startled and wake up. It's been a lot of that for Shane Bieber this season. Fair enough. Let's move over to the hitting leftovers. John. Jonathan, India went three for six with a double dong and three RBI.

He had five hard hits in that game. And something I noticed is he has started batting third in the Reds lineup. Since just before L.A. Dela Cruz got called up. So it's now 36 games where India is betting 2.17 during that time. He still has 10 homers and four steals. So he's been very productive. But you look into the batter ball data, he's lifting the ball, he's hitting more fly balls, more pop.

ups. Chris, it kind of feels like India is selling out because he's now a middle of the order bat. And I don't know that he needs to do that. Yeah, there was also a weird, a weird interview with him, I think, right when they were calling up. I think they had just called up Matt McLean and everyone's pounding the table for Ali Dela Cruz to get called up. And, you know, John in the India, there were, there were quotes to the effect of like, I'm still here, guys. I'm like 26 years old. like, and he's good. Yeah, like he's a good player. And so I, you know, I do think it's, it's a weird situation where like, is he pressing

because he feels the pressure of this young core coming up and, you know, at least in, I don't know, in the organization's eyes, but in the fan's eyes, it certainly seems like he's been displaced. And it's like, well, no, he's still a good young player. And so I do wonder if that is taking a psychological toll on him in addition to what you mentioned. I don't think that they should do this, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Reds flip Jonathan India for pitching. Sometime around the trade deadline,

Matt McLean could play second base, you could have L.E. Dealer Cruz to play short, and then you could call up Christian Encarnacio-Tran to play third base. It just seems to make sense. They have an overabundance, and they really could use pitching help, so we'll see what happens.

Speaking of L.A. Dela Cruz, he went four-for-four, as did his rookie teammate, Spencer Steer, four-for-four in that game as well. Byron Bucksson went three-for-four with a sock and a shoe, his 15th home run and his eighth stolen base. Surprised how much he's running. Yeah, me too.

Given that they've basically said he physically cannot play the outfield, but I guess he's okay to run. It's his most steals, he's one steel short of his most in the last five years. And I kind of felt like blaming this low batting average on the fact that it feels like he's been playing hurt all year. But if they're letting him run, it's, I don't know. Yeah. How hurt is he if he's stealing bases?

I don't want to doubt it. It's probably not fair to him. Francisco Lindor went one for three with a walk and two steals. He is up to 17 home runs and 11 steals on the season. Stalling Marte went two for three with a sock and a shoe. His fifth home run and 22nd steel. Wander Franco went two for four with a sock and a shoe. His 10th homer and 27th steel.

27 steel. I knew it was a big number, but man, that is. Crazy stuff. Zander Bogartz went two for three with his 10th home. home run. That's back to back games with a homer. Ozzie Albies went two for three with a double dong. He is up to 22 homers and Mukie Betz

added his 23rd home run of the season. Very quiet. 23 homers. He's on pace for a career high in terms of home runs. He just quietly does his job. He gets it done and Moogie Betts has been awesome for fans. I'm really not looking forward to him hitting 12 home runs in the second half, which would be a more normal pace and everyone blaming it on the home run derby.

You know it's going to happen too, Chris. Get ready. The call to the bullpen, a few updates here for the Reds. Alexis Diaz was unavailable. Lucas Sims picked up his first save. For Texas, Will Smith entered in the ninth inning with two outs and runners on first and second. He got the final out for his 15th save. For the Mets, David Robertson got the final out for his 12th save.

The Phillies, Craig Kimbril struck out two for his 13th. The Cubs, Adbert Alzely, entered in the eighth inning with two runners on and a three-run lead. he gave up an RBI double. He stayed out there for the ninth inning where he gave up two more runs and he took his first blown save. The Cubs would eventually win in extra innings. For Oakland, Trevor May walked one

but picked up his sixth save. He is 8% rostered and if you are really desperate for saves in a deeper league, Trevor May looks like the A's closer for now. Just might not help me. I think he still has more walks than strikeouts for the season. My guess is they're just trying to rehab any value

and flip him at the deadline for anything. So I don't know how long Trevor May is going to have value for. The Padres, Josh Hader, entered in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and a five-run lead. He would then walk into runs, but eventually picked up his 19th save of the season. For the Guardians, something's wrong with a manual class A, man. This is weird. He entered the ninth with a one-run lead. Granted, it's Ozzy Albies and the Braves.

They're really good. He gave up a solo homer to Albies. he took his league leading seventh blown save of the year for a manual class A. Does he lead in both? Is leading saves and blown saves? I know he was tied for the lead with 24 saves, but Jordan Romano picked up his 25th. I think that might have given Romano the lead now again, which I just mentioned. Jordan Romano, he struck out the side for his 25th.

And for the Dodgers, I didn't get to update this. Let's do it together. Evan Phillips. He blew the save, I believe. Yeah, Evan Phillips entered in the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He would give up three runs on two hits and two walks. He took his second blown save and his third loss. I heard the Dodgers broadcast talking about him working a lot of days,

so probably is a little fatigued. I will say, though, Daniel Hudson's looked pretty good. Daniel Hudson time, could be. I think he pitched in this one and had a strikeout. It might happen. might happen there for Daniel Hudson. Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream. We'll start with Wednesday, where yesterday, I think I said,

JP France versus the Rockies. Yeah, France. That start is in Houston. I think we said Josiah Gray versus the Reds. I don't really love it. Yeah, I don't feel super confident, but I don't hate it. I don't hate Soroka. I agree.

At Cleveland, that lineup is real bad. I think they have one or two hitters with an OPS over 700. It's a real bad lineup. On Thursday, more games than I thought, 12 games late on Thursday. We have, let's see. I think Kyle. Michael Lorenzen. Yeah.

Kyle Braddish. The only thing with Bradish, he's much better at home. Yeah, yeah, that's more about the Yankees being pretty bad. But yeah, no, if that was at Baltimore, I would definitely be starting Kyle Braddish. I think the Yankees right now are a middling matchup at home. So I think he's an okay streamer. What about Jack Flaherty at your Miami Marlins? Red Hot Miami Marlins, baby. They put up 15 runs today. No, I don't have faith in Jack Flaherty. You know, I had something written down about, I had something written down about the Marlins putting up all these runs. Did I just not put it

back on the rundown somewhere? Oh, it's up at the top. Yeah, it's up at the top. You know, I should have just led the podcast with that. The Miami-Farland scoring a season-high 15 runs. Anywho, we're going to wrap there. That's got to fix that run differential after the Braves series, you know? Absolutely got to do it. And you know what?

No team better to do it against than the St. Louis Cardinals, right? Am I right? Yeah. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.