Fantasy Baseball Today - Misiorowski Dominates Dodgers & Confusing Pitchers! (7/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Jacob Misiorowski broke out his curveball against the Dodgers (3:50). ... Brayan Bello tossed a complete game against the Rockies (9:14). ... The Marlins and Rangers put big runs up on the board (14:11). ... News (19:30): Ronald Acuña was scratched with a back injury. ... Austin Wells has homered in three straight and Zach McKinstry is hot right now (28:03). ... Jeffrey Springs turned in another solid start (37:41). ... What is going on with Logan Gilbert, Shota Imanaga and others (40:12)? ... We got a bunch of quality starts on Tuesday (52:55). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:59). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Say it with me now. He's the Miz and he's awesome.

Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, July 9th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by. Chris Towers. Today on the show, we will discuss Jacob Miziarowski's dominance against the Dodgers. Brian Beow threw a complete game. Was he great? Or was it against the Rockies? A little bit of both? I don't know. Hitters that you're tired of hearing about. Confusing pitchers. What's going on with Logan Gilbert? Where are the whiffs for Shota Imanaga? We'll talk about all that and much more. But let's jump in. Holy Toledo. The element is a cry. What a crazy night of baseball, Chris.

there is so much stuff that just happened in these West Coast games. It is officially our latest start of the year. So I do apologize, but also thank everybody for being here. So thanks for hanging around. And of course, you are up with Jacob Miziarowski. Yeah, I mean, first I just want to point out, before we get to anything, the actual, oh my goodness, gracious moment of the night was Patrick Bailey hitting a walk off inside the park home run, which he hit in San Francisco.

have been a home run in 29 out of 30 ballparks, and I guess 30 out of 30, since it was a walkoff home run. That was really fun. It happened right before we went live, so I had to get that one in there. But yes, my, oh my goodness, gracious player of the night is Jacob Mizierowski. Hit the button. Yeah. It's a little abbreviate. I'll wait again.

It's a great song. I wasn't sure how much of it to come. clip, you know. I don't want to do like a 12 second drop or anything. That's a misery business by Paramour for for my millennial friends out there, a classic. And Jacob Mizirowski was unbelievably good on Tuesday night against the Dodgers. And it's funny because it was coming off his first bad start of the season. And then he gives up a home run to Shohei Otani in the very first plate appearance. And it's like, uh-oh. Is Jacob Miseryazzo? Ask you a fraud. Heck, no, he's not because he does not give up another run. Only four hits in the start. One walk, 12 strikeouts in six innings pitched. And I know we've had a little bit of discussion about the lack of whiffs. Well, in this one, 21 swinging strikes on 91 pitches, nine on the fastball, three on the slider, one on the change of pillow, eight on the curveball. That's really interesting. And I do think this might hint at a pass.

forward for Jacob Mizirowski because what we love to see and what we always want to see from young players is not just immediate success, but how they handle failure and how you're going to get punched. That's how major league baseball works. It's really hard. It doesn't matter how tough, how good you are. You're going to struggle at some point. I always want to see how these guys react to struggling. And in Mizirowski's case, we saw the counterpunch and it was outstanding and it was throwing more curveballs. He came into this start throwing 85% sliders and fastballs. And that's been part of why he hasn't missed a lot of bats, or at least relative to the quality of his stuff, hasn't missed as many bats as expected because his slider, we can call the slider,

it's a cutter. In some ways, it kind of moves. It kind of moves. moves like a four seamer at times. Like it does not have a lot of horizontal movement. It's got a lot of induced vertical break for a slider, which means it doesn't, uh, drop down. He throws it 94, 95 miles an hour. And he throws it often like on the inside hip to lefties or right off the outside corner to righties, but not on the corner more in the middle of the strike zone. And so he throws it where a lot of guys throw their cutters in other words.

he hasn't missed a ton of bats with it, but the curveball, it's this power breaker. It's like 88 miles an hour, kind of moved more like a traditional slider. And he missed a ton of bats with eight whiffs on 13 swings in this one. I think partially that is a reflection of the Dodgers going with a really lefty, heavy lineup and having to have an answer to that. But the curveball, you know, he commanded it well. It could be the path to more swing. strikes. The slider's excellent, but it's more of a contact suppression skill or tool. The four seamer is going to miss a lot of bats, but there's a, there's a ceiling on how many

bats you can miss with the four seamer in general, especially if you don't command it super well. So I think this curveball could represent what the, the best version of Jacob Miziarowski looks like. And it looks really, really good. Yeah, for sure. And that curveball, we were, you know, of sleeping on it because he wasn't using it that much. Entering the start, just 11% usage on that curveball. And this one, he's up to 21% usage with that curveball. And entering the start, 38.5% whiff rate on that pitch. So it was a good pitch.

And it was, I guess you could say his best whiff pitch. Like, the change-up is higher, but he really does not use that pitch much at all. So I agree. I think this could be a recipe moving forward for Mizierowski. And maybe he didn't want to kind of show all of his cards in his first couple. couple of starts and you know as we go along he'll start to reveal more and throw more pitches that he needs to very interesting quotes too from from pat murphy before this game did you see these quotes that he had about about missyirowski i didn't know let me see if i can pull them up on the fly here but

it was uh here we go pat murphy on jacob mizierowski quote he's just broken the shell man he's just out of the egg all arms and legs he still got gilly stuff coming off him. He's something special. Yeah, he is covered in gooey stuff. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that's a reminder that as as talented, as raw talented as Jacob Mizirowski is, they are still kind of molding him into a pitcher, right? Like he throws super hard and he's got these

unbelievable traits as a pitcher, but they are still teaching him out of pitch. So very funny, interesting quote there from Pat Murphy but I do think it was a good reminder and you know even with you know some of the ups and down so far mostly ups for Mizzerowski he ranks as a top 36 starting pitcher for all of us uh rest of season so through five starts it's a 281 ERA a point 90 whip and 11.6k per nine for Jacob Mizirowski who once again because I'm the he's also that is longer than my drop yeah it is well I mean we'll work it will work together we'll get this uh re-bus this one a little bit longer. We'll figure it out. What about Brian Beow who tossed

the second complete game of his career, this one against the Rockies, where he allowed just five hits, two earned runs, one walk to 10 strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 10-7 pitches here, and, look, the sweeper, awesome in this one, had six whiffs, his sinker was very good too. At the top, I mentioned, you know, was he great in this start? Was it just the Rockies being bad? I leaned the ladder, and I don't want to take anything away from Bayo because he's pitching well right now, but just some of the individual pitch characteristic stuff has kind of been weird this season. Typically, the change-up has been his best pitch throughout his career, and so far this season, it's been one of his worst pitches. You know, last month he had that great start against the

Yankees. We were kind of excited because he was throwing this new cutter. Well, it turns out that cutter hasn't been very good for him, and he's not really using it very much. So I don't know, maybe he's just figuring out new ways to get people out. I lean more on. He just faced the Rockies team on the road, and he took advantage of an incredible matchup. But even with all that said, last seven outings for Bayo, it's a 278 ERA, a 101 whip,

36 strikeouts over 45 in a third innings, doing a really good job, limiting hard contact and getting ground balls. That can be a recipe for Bayo, but in terms of getting strikeouts and, you know, the whiffs being there and, I don't know, His change of just being dominant. That isn't happening right now for Brian Beow.

So what do you take away from this recent stretch from him? Are you encouraged by it? I think he's Brian Beow. I think he ran into the Rockies on the road. I think exactly what you said. The cutter flashed initially, but he only threw it three times in this one. And frankly, you look at the results.

That's probably the right call. It's been getting hit really hard. It has not become a weapon for him like we hoped. I think he's okay. I think he's probably just a streamer, and he's 70% rostered coming off the best start of his career and a really nice run since really the start of June. And that's great.

I don't really take much from it. I think it was a nice start. I don't think there's much more. And here's another problem. Have you seen what the Red Sox schedule looks like to open the second half? I have not. At the Cubs, at the Phillies, versus the Dodgers for their first three series.

Not great. That's probably two starts in really tough situations for Brian Beow. I'm not saying he can't be useful. I'm not saying he won't be good in those starts. But we have a decent track record here of Brian Beow being just a guy. I don't think he's taken a big step forward here. Again, the biggest thing that stands out to me is that he has done a better job, limiting hard contact. He's always been really good at getting ground balls, but all of a sudden, his strikeout rate, swinging strike rate is way down this season.

The walks are still a major problem for Brian Beaux. So he's pitching well right now. He's keeping runs off the board. Maybe just doing a really good job of hitting his spots and, you know, those kinds of cliche things here. But even after this start, it's a 437 FIP, a 423X FIP, and his XERA was around 4.5 heading into this one. as great as this start was, I do agree. I think Bayo, mostly a streamer, in the right matchups. This was one of them.

I would still take a lot of the names we've talked about recently. Edward Cabrera ahead of him. Noah Cameron, Ryan Nelson, Emmichian, Joe Boyle. I take all those. Every single one of those guys ahead of Brian Bayo. I think Beow versus Trevor Rogers is kind of an interesting one. I don't know.

I'm a little bit more encouraged by Rogers than you are. Who would you take between the two? I don't think this stuff is there, but look, I think they're both fringy enough that Trevor Rogers, the Orioles open the second half, at the Rays, at the Guardians, versus the Rockies. I think I'd rather have Trevor Rogers there just because his first two matchups in the second half

are going to be better. At the top, you mentioned, Christy, Patrick Bailey walkoff inside the park home run. It was just a crazy day of baseball stuff. We had Lawrence Butler, in inside the park and outside the park home run in the same game. So two home runs. First pitch of the game inside the park home run.

Crazy, crazy stuff there. We had a go-ahead grand slam off of Josh Hader that was hit by Angel Martinez. Anhele Martinez, excuse me. And it would only be a home run in one out of 30 ballparks. It was hit 334 feet, which again is a bunch of crazy stuff. We had two home run robberies in the same game and the Padres game. that game one zip, they would have lost it to one if they didn't rob home run. So it was just crazy, crazy day of baseball. There was also a lot of runs put up on the board. The Marlins,

I don't know, man. These slugging Marlins all of a sudden, they win 12 to 2. And I had someone tweeted me earlier on Tuesday before this game and said, maybe the Marlins aren't the cakewalk matchup that they used to be. They're up to 17th in Wobah as a team. Over the last 14 games are all the way up to 10th in Wobah that's before this game, so it's only going to go up. So might be onto something. I, yeah, maybe they're just not a cakewalk like they used to be, Chris. I mean, they have some pesky bats, they, you know, put the ball in play a good amount. You know, they have some guys that could actually hit the ball over the fence now, Kyle Stowers,

and Augustine Ramirez. I do think the top teams that you should be streaming against are the Pirates, White Sox, Rockies, Guardians, Royals. I would still be okay using a pitcher against the Marlins, but maybe we're not streaming every pitcher against the Marlins anymore. Maybe not the Nick Martinez's of the world, especially in Cincinnati against the Marlins. That's probably.

I do want to point out on the Pirates just randomly because I noticed it. They're slugging percentage on the road this season is 303. They're slugging percentage. That is so bad. Is that worse than the White Sox last year? Because the White Sox were generally generationally bad. I mean...

At hitting baseballs last season. Let's, yeah, I have no idea, maybe. Let's see, the White Sox last season had a 340 slug overall. 336 on the road. Yeah, the pirates are significantly worse. Sorry, 306. They are hitting 206. 275-306 on the road this season.

That is unbelievably back. It is so embarrassing to me that. Embarrassing. Embarrassing. That teams have a talent like Paul Skeens and just repunted. Refused to do nothing with it. It's just, all right, we have maybe the best pitcher in baseball.

We're going to just lead off Tommy Pham every game this season or something like that. So it's not what you want. The Marlins weren't the only ones who had a big game. In fact, we had the Rangers put up 13 runs at the Angels and mentioned at the top hitters that you're tired of hearing about. Well, Corey Seeger is one of those. Another day, another homer has six home runs in his past 11 games.

OPS is up to 8.30. That number is climbing pretty fast here for Corey Seeger. Welcome back to Wyatt Langford, who went two for four, with his 14th home run for RBI. did hit this home run off of a position player. I didn't see this in the box score, but someone in the YouTube chat was saying that Kevin Newman threw three innings of relief in this game,

which is a position player throwing three innings is insane, but it happened. And Jake Berger. That is only gave up three runs. Yeah. In those three innings, believe it or not. Jake Berger got in on the action as well, three for five with his 11th home run.

His home run came off of a position player. It was Kevin Newman. Jake Burger 48% rostered, Chris. That number seems right to me. Jake Burger is someone who can get hot out of nowhere and be a league winner, but he's not that right now. You've got to see it first. Yeah.

I think that's totally fine where Jake Burger is that 48% rostered. Big thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. And let's take a break. We'll hit the news and notes right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's run through the news and notes.

Ronald Acuna was scratched from the lineup Tuesday with lower back tightness. Eli White started in his place. Something to watch. Apparently the Braves are just being very precautionary here. Obviously, Akuna, one of the top assets in the league. So they are trying to protect him in this one. And so we'll see. He's day-to-day.

We'll see when he can get back in the lineup. Kattel Marte returned to the lineup after missing Monday with groin tightness. I am going to assume he didn't really do anything because that was a one-zip game. He went 0 for two with two walks. So, all right, he was on base more than anybody else for the debacks in this game. Raphael Devers is apparently dealing with some back tightness

and the earliest he'll play at first base is after the All-Star break. So they are kind of working through that. They do want to use him at first base, but as long as he's dealing with some ailments, they're not going to put him at first base just yet. Hunter Green threw a bullpen session on Tuesday. Nice to see that after he experienced renewed groin discomfort just the other day.

He was supposed to make a rehab start here on Tuesday, but instead a bullpen and we'll see how his body bounces back from that. Shane McClanahan began a rehab assignment at the Florida Complex League on Tuesday. And Chris, do you know what that means? Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. The first time we've been able to play that soundbite all season long because I don't want to jinx it.

I might have just done exactly that. But we're getting closer here. Shane McClain-Han through one inning with a walk and strikeout. Just 11 pitches in his first start here. But the rays are hopeful that his next appearance will come this Sunday at AAA. So it's going to take him time to build up just because you see AAA. Don't get too excited just yet. He's probably going to need like four or five more starts.

just to get built up, but I don't know, maybe late July, early August for Shane McClanahan if there are no setbacks. Nice that we'll get some stack us data for it. So we'll get our first sense of where the stuff's at after, you know, obviously Tommy John, he pitched one game in the spring? I don't. That sounds right. Maybe it was more than one, but it wasn't many.

And then after the nerve issue. So, you know, it's going to be. Interesting to see what the stuff looks like for Shane McClanahan for sure. It was actually three starts in springtrian for Shane O. Mac. Jacob Wilson left after getting hit by a pitch on the left wrist. And I did see an update here. Marcotte said X-rays came back negative and Jacob Wilson is day to day. The Yankees have moved Jazz Chisholm back to second base.

Oswald Paraza is expected to start a third until they trade for somebody, which I almost guarantee they're not going to. to finish the season with Oswald Parraza as their third baseman. Maybe the answer is Jamer Candelario if he hits in the minors, they call him up or whatever, but I saw that they scratched one of their prospects, Everson Pereira from AAA game here on Tuesday, but there was no news that came of it. So everyone started speculating, oh, are they close on a trade? Probably not, but I would back on them trading for a third baseman. You know who I hope it isn't? Who's that?

don't trade for Ehuehanyos Suarez because if he happens to have a bad month Yankees fans are going to hate him and I don't want that for him he deserves better than that he is a pretty shrieky hitter too yeah he can he can go through a little bit but he would be someone with like a 22% strikeout rate

it'll be fine ah that sounds a lot like Nolan Aeronado to me Chris that's a 10% strike rate baby yeah not not that I really want aaroni just trade for Cobrain Hayes it's fine We'll see. Kodi Isenga is expected to return Friday against the Royals. Cole Regens was transferred to the 60-day IL, which makes sense. He can't return until early August with that rotator cuff strain in his left shoulder. Yvonne Herrera will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday or Friday

and expects to be activated right after the All-Star break. Adley Rutchman took dry swings on Tuesday his first step to returning from that oblique injury. And speaking of Orioles catchers, Gary Sanchez is likely to miss 8 to 10 weeks with a moderate PCL sprain in his right knee, which, I mean, awful timing for him. He was lighten it up, someone that you could have used in fantasy as well. And I don't want to say it's definitely not going to happen. But I feel like if they were going to call up Samuel Bessio, it would have happened by now, Chris. I would have called him up, but I understand why they wouldn't. You know, like they're not really playing for anything.

They're focusing on his defense, although he's not playing full-time catcher at AAA anyway. So catching three times a week in the majors, playing first or DH the rest of the time. It should still be possible, but he's only 20. I get it. I get it. He hasn't played that much at AAA. They should have called him up. Yankees prospect, K.M. Schlittler will make his first career start Wednesday against the Mariners.

This season in the minors hit 282, hit 2.8. 282, has a 282 ERA with a 121 whip, 11.6K per 9, walks, bit of a problem, does get ground balls, gets a good amount of whiffs. He did that between AA and AAA, 41% rostered. I think it's mostly a deep league thing for now. 41% a little bit higher than I thought here, Chris, but there is a little bit upside, so we'll see. Yeah, I'm interested to see what he looks like. I think 41% is probably about as high as it needs to be before he makes a good. good start. If he makes a good start, then we can talk. If he struggles, then 41% is probably

going to be too high. Yeah. All right. Next up, Kyle Bradish has thrown two live BP sessions and is expected to throw one more before beginning a rehab assignment. He is recovering from Tommy John surgery and is probably still out until August, but could be on a similar timeline as someone like Shane Bieber. So, Kyle Bradish was great. The last time, the last couple of years, we saw only 13% rostered. Totally. A name you can stash right now. Shane Bieber's 55% rostered, I think.

Shane McClainahan's much higher than that. I would suspect those guys are going to be ahead of Kyle Bradish, but Braddish, but the timetable is probably not that different for him versus those other two. So that was one that really stood out to me. I had kind of forgotten, and I think everybody had forgotten that, Kyle Bradish is coming back.

And he looked like an ace the last two times. we saw him, 2022 and 2023. All right, Clay Holmes is expected to start Sunday, but will likely be piggybacked by Sean Medea in his return from the IL. And I do wonder if the Mets will start to limit

Clay Holmes a little bit here, Chris, his first season as a starter. I think it makes sense if they want to use him in the postseason as well. Not to the same extent as Rasmussen because Rasmussen is more injury related. Yeah. But you know, I think you're going to only

push Clay Holmes so far, a reliever turned starter here. So kind of interested to see what happens. Take the opportunity to sell high in Clay Holmes right now. Which is tough because he just had a bad start. Yeah, it's not coming off his best start, but he had been doing very well before that. And it looks super unsustainable, especially with the way his command has regressed as the season has gone on. So I would be looking to try to trade Clay Holmes right now. Rees Hoskins hopes to returned by mid to late August with that grade two UCL sprain in his left thumb. Luis Robert Robert Reyes-Robert-Rourt was activated from the IL. Luis Heel is expected to begin a rehab assignment on Sunday.

Kabor Ruiz went back on the seven-day concussion IL on Tuesday. He was activated last Friday, but apparently had a renewed concussion symptoms. Starly Marte placing the IL due to a right knee bone bruise, and Jesse Winker was activated. Zebby Matthews threw a live BP on Tuesday, his first time. facing hitters since going on the aisle with a right shoulder strain and the Dodgers called up Alexis Diaz from AAA. He has been pretty terrible in the minors since coming over from the Red. So I don't really think that one matters much at all.

Let's get into the Waver Wire hitters from Tuesday's action and one shallow league catcher up top. Austin Wells has homered in three straight. He's up to 14 home runs has 50 RBI as a catcher, which is pretty impressive. comes with a 221 batting average 743 OPS. 77% rostered. I think that probably sounds right, Chris. What do you think about Awesome Wells? Yeah, I think he, I don't have my rankings open right now,

but I think he's around 15. So, yeah, I don't. 14, I haven't met 15. Scott has him at 16. Yeah, so that's pretty fringy in a one-point, one-catcher league. I think 77% rostered's fine. All right. Next up, Zach McKinjury has been, he's been doing some things, man.

He is running a lot lately. Last 28 games for McKinthry, 315 batting average, four homers, 18 runs, 10 steals, and an OPS over 900. So the overall numbers this season, he's hitting 283, now up to 13 steals total. He's got an 817 OPS. 62% rostered with third-based shortstop and outfield eligibility. Chris, do you think that number needs to be higher for Zincre3rd? Zach McKinthry? I don't really think so.

Is this really a points league guy? He doesn't really play every day. I don't really think Zach McEntry's roster rate is too low at 62%. Yeah, it looks like he sits out, I don't know, every fourth or fifth game. Yeah, he hasn't gotten to 100 played appearances in a month so far this season.

So, yeah. He's probably, sitting about 15 to 20% of the time, which for a guy whose talent is, I think, pretty fringy already, I don't think he's really someone that needs to be rostered any higher than he is. Yeah, I would say, you know, his biggest asset is obviously his versatility, having three different positions. Definitely a name for roto leagues, but, you know, at 62% rostered, I would say that probably covers most roto leagues at this point, especially with the way he's running. So batting average and steals, you like that in a pretty good Tigers lineup.

But yeah, 62% probably sounds right. John Carlo Stanton has been having some better at bats lately two for four with his second home run. And over his last seven games, hitting 250, two homers, eight RBI, and an 899 OPS, 47% rostered for Staten. Do you think that number needs to be higher? I do not. I think, again, a guy who doesn't necessarily. play every day. Batting average is going to be really bad.

I don't think he matters in points leagues. Yeah, five outfielder roto leagues. He's going to strike out too much in points. You know, daily lineup leagues, but even those, well, I guess you have two utility spots in those. Maybe that makes him a little bit more appealing. So, I don't know. In a daily lineup league, whenever stands in there,

you could probably just throw them in there if you need some power. Ryan Jeffers had himself a big gain, three for four with his seventh home run with three RBI and kind of weird year for Ryan Jeffers who has had more power in the past couple of seasons

but this year he's down to just seven home runs you know hitting 246, 742 OPS 41% rostered big game here but I I think he's just a two catcher league name Ryan Jeffers. Too many good catchers out there. Yeah which you know that's something we would say a lot

before a season and then it would not come true. Yeah no that's the first time it's ever actually been true in like July. Yeah, it is, it is pretty great. Because I was looking at like Kyle Teal earlier and he's having a solid start. It hasn't been like great for fantasy because it's a low batting average and a lot of walks. But like, you know, a catcher with a 390 on base percentage, even without much power, would be fantasy relevant in the past.

And it's hard to make much room for him right now. So yeah, this is a surprise. What a pleasant one. For sure. Colt Keith quietly picking things up. He went two for three with his eighth home run. Last 17 games, he is hitting 333 with four homers, 12 runs scored, OPS over 950, hitting the ball hard,

91.5, the average exit velocity, and he has let off 14 in a row against right-handed pitching. So 34% rostered. I do see some deep league appeal here for Colt Keith, Chris. What do you think? Yeah, this is, well, what, consecutive games with a home run or was it three? He's hitting much better lately.

He's been at the top or near the top of the lineup. Two in a row. A ton. He doesn't really ever play against lefties, right? Yeah, he has not started a game against a lefty since June 4th, which happens to really coincide with when he got hot. So, no, Colkeith is having a really nice season. OPS is now close to 800.

He's plate discipline's been better. The quality of contacts has been better. I think his XBA is like 280 right now. It's limited because he doesn't play every day. He doesn't play against lefties, really. But I think he's still under-rastered at 34%. There are some Roto leagues where, you know, Colt Keith, I think he has third and second eligibility, right?

Am I remembering correctly? Yep. So, yeah. Either middle or corner infield. that's nice to have a round, even if it's not a huge difference maker. Yeah, even in, you know, like deeper points leagues, the fact that he doesn't play enough, I don't think it's going to work. He actually has first base eligibility as well, so.

Okay. Yeah, if you do play in a deeper roto league, corner and middle, you need a little bit of batting average, modest pop, you know, going to score runs at the top of that lineup too. So I, yeah, I have a little bit of interest there in Colt Keith. Two other deep league names here, Ronnie Maricio, seems like he's been having better at bats lately. one for five with his fourth home run. He's got four homers, two steals in just 25 games. He's got second and third base eligibility problem.

He's only started two of the past five games. So I kind of just wish we could see what he could do with full-time playing time. But obviously the Mets are playing for a lot this season, so they don't really have that luxury to just kind of develop him on the fly. And Harrison Bader had himself a big game. Two for four with a sock in a shoe. his 11th home run, his eighth steal, and has started eight of the past 10 games.

Just a quietly solid season, man. 11 home runs, eight steals to this point. Any deep league interest, Chris, and Ronnie Maricio or Harrison Bader? Honestly, more in Bader than Maricio, just because of the playing time situation. I know Bader's not going to play every day himself, but Maricio doesn't really have any kind of clear path to

everyday playing time unless something drastically changes in New York. I think it's probably more likely he's sent down to the minors before the end of the month than that he's starting every day. Bader has a little bit of category appeal. Home runs and stolen bases. I've been surprised by the pop. I don't necessarily buy him as like a 20 homer guy, but he's gotten close before if he hasn't.

I don't know if he's eclips. Has he hit 20 homers in his season? I feel like he has done that. But he's been a great contributor to my A-L-only team. He has not. He has 16 home runs as a career high. I think just 15-team Roto Leagues, and even there, he's pretty fringy. Yeah, I would agree with that.

One name who is actually available in some shallower leagues, but I don't think we're looking to add him right now. If you picked him up, I think you're holding to see what happens here. But Jack Caglione, he looks. launched a massive home run off of Mitch Keller, 11.1, eggs of velocity, 421 feet. The problem is he only has three home runs a season. Two of them came in the same game.

Now, when he's hit home runs, they have been majestic home runs. It just hasn't happened as frequently as we would like to see happen. So I don't think you should be playing him right now, but I try my best to hold on because it wouldn't surprise me if boom out of the All-Star break, all right? Another prospect just starts to figure things out. that would be the whole bit.

There aren't really many positive signs to take right now. I guess he's not striking out very much, but that's not really a positive because he's taking a lot of terrible swings. His chase rate is up to 38%. That's way too high. So I think it mostly comes down to him just being super aggressive and not picking the right pitches

to swing at. And look, easier said than done, right? but this is a 22-year-old who's still very developing, still very raw. It shouldn't be a surprise that it's taken him a while to figure it out. So like you said, if I can, I'd like to hang on to Jack Caglione and hope that he figures it out. But, you know, I'm not surprised by the growing pains here. Yeah. And way too many ground balls.

That has been an issue for Caglione, 52% ground ball rate thus far. It's hard to hit home runs when you're hitting so much on the. ground. So one lonely waiver wire pitcher here, Chris. Jeffrey Springs, a quality start against the Braves, six innings, one run, two strikeouts to one walk. I think we know the deal. I mean, he's done a good job keeping runs off the board this year.

Schremer in the right matchups, 63% rostered. Anything else to add on Jeffrey Springs? No, I think 63% is probably about right until he has his next two start week. He does get a decent schedule to open. open up the second half at Cleveland, at Texas, at Houston. So, you know, maybe if it lines up and he's a two-star pitcher that second week back, maybe you can go out and add him. But right now we don't know how it's going to line up.

So I wouldn't go out and add Jeffrey Springs as a result of that. All right, let's take our final break when we return. What do we make of these pitchers? Logan Gilbert, Shota Imanaga. It's just been a little bit weird, a little bit off. We'll talk about it right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. What do we make of these starting pitchers?

Logan Gilbert, a weird one at the Yankees. Final line, five and a third, five runs allowed, five strikeouts here. He was dealing before the rain delay, four innings, one hit, zero walks, four strikeouts. After the rain delay, one point one innings, five runs allowed, two walks to one strikeout. So it was something like a 45 minute, maybe an hour rain delay, and, I was a little surprised to see Bolt starting pitchers came back out. That might just be the explanation here, Chris, but even in the other starts since he's returned,

five starts since coming back from that arm injury, it's a 568 ERA and a 130 whip. So what do you make of Logan Gilbert right now? Yeah, he's been a little shaky. On the other hand, it's 35 strikeouts and 25 in a third innings. The control, I guess, has been a little more shaky than you've come to expect. but even then it's seven walks in 25 and a third innings. That's not particularly concerning.

So I don't really have much concern about Logan Gilbert right now. If anything, I think there are some reasons to believe that he's as good or better than he's ever been. And it's just been a little bit of bad luck on balls in play because he has a 37% strikeout rate, which is the highest of his career by far. And I don't necessarily think that's a fluke. He has dropped his arm slot from a 45 degree, 44 degree arm angle last season to 37 degree this season. And the primary thing that that has changed is it's made his splitter, which was really good last year, even better this season. He has a 53% whiff rate with his splitter and a 105 expected Wobah allowed.

80.5 mile per hour average X-Vlocity against for Logan Gilbert on his splitter. His slider's been very good. The four seamers playing even better than it did last year. I think most of the signs indicate that Logan Gilbert is as good or better than he's ever been. And the only thing holding me back is just that he dealt with an elbow injury earlier in the season. and just maybe his commands a little off. Maybe he's not 100%. Maybe the injury risk is a little higher moving forward.

But if you could guarantee me health for Logan Gilbert, I think he's a top 10 starting pitcher. Yeah, I mean that the fact that it was, it was an elbow injury, right, or forearm? So obviously that's always scary and he throws hard. So maybe he's just not completely right. but I agree. I mean, if I knew he was healthy, I would say, boom, give this guy the clear, you know, buy low or just buy right now stamp of approval.

But, you know, it just adds a little bit of hesitation, I guess, with trying to buy. I'm much more likely to say buy low, though, or just buy, period, with Logan Gilbert than anything else, though. All right. Where are the whiffs for Shota Imanaga, who had a quality start at the Twins, six innings to runs, zero walks, but only one strikeout. The weird part, he had 11 whiffs on 83 pitches, so it just feels like that should have resulted in more than just one strikeout here.

But 13 hard hits allowed, velocity down in this start for Imanaga, and I don't know, it's just been a weird season for him. I know he dealt with the injury, he missed a lot of time, but even before then, he has four strikeouts or fewer in nine of 11 starts. His swinging strike rate is down the season. He's giving up a lot more flight.

balls which has led to more barrels a higher home run rate as well so chris where are the strikeouts what is going on with i'm anaga yeah the the concern i had with imanaga and in as in so much as i had concerns coming into the season was just that because his stuff is not great you know he throws 92 he's got that amazing splitter but the overall arsenal is i think his success last season was more about how unique his approach has been. You know, there are not many lefties who rely on a splitter as heavily as Shodi Minaga is. There are not a lot of lefties who do that while being 5 foot 10 with a low arm

slot release. So he's just someone that hitters don't have a lot of familiarity with. It's a type of pitcher that hitters in the majors don't have a lot of familiarity with. And I was worried that it would just be a little less effective when the element of surprise was taken away. Because hitters tend to do better the more they see pitchers. They tend to do better the more they see pitch types. A good example of that is the sweeper craze when it first was introduced. And you saw guys throwing really good sweepers.

The whiff rates were super high. Now I think the whiff rate on sweepers league wide is actually a little bit lower than it is for like sliders. So that just kind of illustrates the point that the more hitter see of pitchers or pitches, the better they do against them. And I think maybe Imanaga, the league is catching up to him a little bit. He's still been very good, but 19% strikeout rate, walk rate's a little elevated. I do think there's a sell high window here with Shodimanaga, especially because the strikeouts aren't getting better with the you know, since he came back from the hamstring injury. So, all right, my next question was,

would you be looking to buy on show to Emanago? But you're more likely to go the other way and sell while you can. All right. What about Jack Flaherty? His first quality start since, actually, it might be back to, no, no, last time it was only five. But I think he has two quality starts in his last three. This one, I was nervous because last time he faced Tampa Bay,

he got destroyed by them. But solid outing, six and a third inning, two runs, eight strikeouts to one walk, had 16 whiffs on 93 pitches. The velocity was up on his breaking pitches in this start. And it's just also been a weird season here, Chris, for Jack Flaherty, who has a 470 ERA, a 124 whip. I am at this point, unless something changes, like his fastball and slider have regressed from where they were last season.

I am comfortable saying that Flaherty is more likely to be high threes or low fours, ERA pitcher, albeit with a lot of strikeouts, but I was expecting that number to be better coming into the season. So I'm just, I don't know, I'm, I'm ready not to take the L, but I guess just, I just admit that, yeah, this is not the pitcher that I was expecting coming into the year. I think that's fair. I'm more inclined to call him a buy low, uh, because the stuff still looks like it's mostly there. And, you know, maybe the command hasn't been as good. and that's why the walk rate and the quality of contact is worse. But that's the kind of thing that could just flip on a dime.

Like, you know, as we saw, like, I have some faith in the Tigers being able to figure that out because they already did. And maybe that's misplaced faith. I certainly wouldn't give up a ton for Jack Flaherty, but I'm still not quite ready to write him off as a, you know, very good fantasy option, even if he hasn't been anything. close to that so far this season. I hear you. I understand it. It could flip quickly here, but why hasn't it already, I guess? That would be my question, right? Like, it's been 18 starts

and the Tigers still haven't really been able to get him on track. He's been okay. He's had some good starts this season. A lot of strikeouts. I mean, that's the one thing. 29% strike rate is still really good. Yeah, it's just, he's also had some big blowups, too. So he's again, I think he's more like a

maybe a 3-8 to like 4. ERA pitcher with a lot of strikeouts, which is better than what he's done so far. It's just, yeah, I was probably expecting, you know, something like a mid-3s ERA coming into the season. You know, I will give him this. At least the whip is still tolerable. It's not good.

But for as mediocre as the ERA is, 470, 124 whip you can live with. So that is a good sign even though it's not, it's still not a great thing for Jack Flaherty. Yeah. Next up, Jose Soriano had a rough. outing against the Rangers, four innings, five runs allowed, five walks, a season high, to just four strikeouts through only 57% of his pitches for strikes. And look, he's had two very rough outings in his last three. Back on June 27th, he allowed eight earned runs over four innings. Do these two terrible starts, Chris, kind of erase all the good faith that Soriano

built up with us? Because before these two bad starts, I mean, he was, we had like seven shutout with 10 strikeout starts, you know? He was doing some really great things. 85% rostered should that still be the case for Jose Soriano? I think he's a drop. And it's frustrating because he does so many things well. Elite ground ball pitcher, maybe the best ground ball pitcher in baseball,

has four different pitches with an above-average swing and miss rate, which is pretty shocking. There are only seven pitchers in baseball who have thrown at least 100 pitches of each pitch type and have four pitches with an above average swinging strike rate. That is Zach Wheeler, Paul Skeen, Spencer Schwellenbach, Cole Regens, Freddie Peralta, Ronnie Enriquez, and Jose Soriano. That is really weird because he's got a 20% strikeout rate for the season. because I think his command is just really bad

and he's going to give up a lot of hits because he's a ground ball pitcher. Even when things are going well, he'll give up a lot of hits. So Jose Soriano, not at all someone that I think needs to be rostered in every league, unfortunately. All right, let's get into some good pitching performances here.

And Yuri Perez, he is coming alive over his last two outings. Five innings, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks at the Reds. He had 11 whiffs on 88 pitches and mixed in more sweepers in this one. The velocity was up on that pitch. It performed very well. And all of a sudden, last two starts, 11 innings, one run, 15 strikeouts to just one walk. So not sure he's completely back yet, Chris, but we're getting closer. Yeah, the one thing with the sweeper, you know, the velocity being up on that one,

the velocity was also down on his curveball. I do wonder if that's just a classification thing because I think the curveball and sweeper have been very similar for him. His curveball certainly been different than it was last year. So that that's, I'm not sure what to make of that. But I am not particularly surprised that Yuri Perez is starting to look a lot better because I think he's an incredibly talented pitcher. And I will always point out he is 22 years old. like we've been talking about him for a long time he had a great rookie season he had Tommy John surgery now he's back and he's still 22 years old he's younger than all these

pitchers we're talking about right like chase burns and jacobisierowski he's younger than all those guys I'm pretty sure so like eventually the uri Perez was going to figure out was it guaranteed to happen in july of this season of course not it might have taken until august or september or april of next season but I was always very very confident that Yuri Perez was going to get back to being an impact pitcher, and it looks like we're back there. Is he going to be a superstar, an ace the rest of the way? No, I think there's going to be a lot of starts like this where he's pulled after five innings and 88 pitches because they don't want to push him. But I think Yuri Perez is going to be very good the rest of the way.

All right, we had a bunch of pitchers with quality starts here, Chris. So I'm just going to read off some names, and you tell me, did anything stand out for these six? Ryan Pepeyo, Nathan Avaldi, Merrill Kelly, Mitch Keller, Seth Lugo. He can't keep getting away with it. He can't keep getting away with it. He won't. Five strikeouts, four whiffs on 82 pitches. 93.1 average exit velocity against Seth Lugo is a magician.

And Clayton Kershaw. So again, six names Chris Kershaw, Lugo, Mitch Keller, Merrill Kelly, Avaldi, and Pepio. stands out from that group. Yeah, I think we can throw Clayton Kershaw in the he can't keep getting away with this bucket because I just don't buy it. It's like it's great to see. I'm never going to root against the, you know, best pitcher of his generation, but I don't buy him being a must-star fantasy player moving forward. Seth Lugo, I will give him this. The strikeouts are back. The strikeout rate was down early in the season. He wasn't really missing bats. I don't know what specifically has changed,

but the strikeout rate since the start of June is significantly up. That's good to see. The walk rate has been better over the past couple of starts after looking really bad in June. And he still somehow had a 126 ERA. I don't know. The thing with Seth Lugo is I might just be faded to be wrong about Seth Lugo. because I have my process of what I believe matters for pitchers, and that process serves me really well with like 95% of the pitching population

over a long enough time. I'm not going to say I get everything right. Certainly in any small sample size, there are always going to be weird things that happen. But generally speaking, I feel pretty confident that the way I analyze pitchers will get me the right answer more often than not. and maybe Seth Lugo just doesn't fit into the paradigm of what, what we think matters for pitchers.

Maybe there's just something about him that even though he doesn't limit hard contact all that well, he still manages to get out. I don't know. I'm willing to entertain that he's just an outlier in a way that we can't account for. And if I just have to continue to be wrong about Seth Lugo, because I want to be consistent about how I approach analysis. I guess I'm okay with that. Yeah.

I think there are some players that just defy analytics and the things that we normally look at. For years, we would look at Jose Al-Tuvans say, all right, well, the exit velocities are terrible, and his expected stats are terrible, and he's getting older, and, you know, it's probably going to fall off. And it kind of looked like that for most of the season,

and, you know, he's kind of just picked things up. He's on a tear once again. So, you know, there are players that can defy analytics and things like that. So that is possible for Seth Lugo. The problem with this particular start is that his velocity was way down. So I just want to watch it. You know, someone like him and Jose Burrios, I mentioned this the other day, his velocity was way down.

It's just kind of weird for a veteran pitcher out of nowhere, like, you know, his sinker down 1.5 miles per hour, his fastball down 1.3. I'll start break coming in a good time He averaged 89.8 miles per hour on his sinker like I don't think that's a great thing for Lugo but he still managed a quality start

here against the pirates obviously And I did just want to mention with Ryan Pepio Who you know over his last nine starts Has a 260 ERA a 0.96 whip 60 strikeouts over 52 innings And much like his teammate Shane Baas He has been throwing this cutter more recently Kind of feels like an organizational philosophy thing

with, you know, the raised pitchers working in this cutter more, and it's working. I mean, you know, both Boz and Pepio have pitched much better lately, so I've been pretty aggressive in moving Pepio up. I have him inside of my top 40 starting pitchers. Maybe that's a little bit too aggressive, but I like the changes he's made, and I really like what we've seen overall, and I would just rather have him over Castillo, Flaherty, Bibi. I mean, those three pitchers in particular have just been kind of frustrating all season.

for me. So I'll take Pepe over those three. Yeah, that's fair. Castillo... I guess he's been okay. Castillo's been fine. Yeah, I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out and it hasn't happened. And I want to say his slider has been playing much better of late and the four seamer whiff rate is up as the season's gone on. So it's not a guarantee, but it's, um, it's interesting. Hitters, you're tired of hearing about Trevor Story. He will not stop. Over his last 28 games, he's betting 333 with eight homers, 31 RBI, five steals, an OPS over 950. His may was truly dreadful. And I think you had to drop him at that point because we just didn't have much of a sample the last couple of years from Trevor Story. And again, that month was terrible.

But man, he has picked it up in a major way all the way up to 79% rostered. So I didn't include him in waiver wire hitters anymore. Hunter Goodman. I still think that's the ceiling. I don't think. Even he's probably rostered in a bunch of points leagues. I think in the long run, you're not going to want him in a points league.

Totally agree in the long run, but if you want to ride the hot hand. Ride the hottest hand in baseball right now. I have no problem doing that. Hunter Goodman smacked another home run. His 17th of the season, he actually provided the only blemish to Brian Bayo's line in that game.

and Jose Altuve, who I just mentioned, last seven games, hitting 444, three homers, nine runs, 14 RBI. You know, overall numbers, he's got 16 homers, counting stats look pretty good. Yeah, 78 OPS. You know, again, you'd like the skills to be higher. Mention that the other day, but everything else looks pretty good here for Jose Altuve. Some hitting leftovers.

Jonathan Aranda continues his strong season, two for four with his 11th home run. Jaron Duran, looking to pick things back up last eight games. hitting 345 with two home runs and 9 RBI. O'Neill Cruz launched a moonshot off of Seth Lugo, his 16th home run, 115.6 exit velocity, 458 feet. Shohei Otani led off that game against Mizirowski with the home run, his 31st of the season.

He also has 88 runs scored in 91 games. So, I mean, where will it end? I don't know, like, are we going to get 160 runs scored from Otani? That would be pretty crazy stuff. Fun AL MVP matchup, Aaron Judge, hit his 34th home run, and then Cal Raleigh responded with his 36th home run of the season. I thought it was very cool that Yankees fans got to see the American League MVP in action tonight. That is not true, Chris, and you know it.

You know that is not true. Wow, okay, Bobby Witt MVP? All right, all right, I see what you did do. You pull the fast one on me. Yes, they did get to see whoever will win it, I guess. Kyle Schwerber You know The home run derby is going to be pretty fun

Man Like Yeah Cow Ralee in the home run Derby man Oh your cruise in the Home Run Derby What

That's going to be awesome Yeah And you know what I think Akunia was going to be in it But now he's got this back thing too So And it was It's in Atlanta

So that would have been pretty cool too You know what's annoying Kyle Rally's awesome He's probably not going to hit 65 home runs this season Or whatever he's on pace for And when he hits like 17 home runs and hits 2.30 in the second half and is still really good.

People are like, oh, the home run derby ruined him. And it's like, no, this is just what happens sometimes. Guys end up in the home run derby because they're having outlier home run seasons and they're not going to sustain it. And we don't have to do this. I also want to point out Shohayotani currently on pace. And actually, Aaron Judge is also on pace to do this. So it'd be pretty impressive if both of them did it. Currently on pace. for the first 150 run season since 2000, when Jeff Bagwell scored 152. Nobody had done it before that since 1949.

Wow. So there have only been two 150 run seasons since baseball was integrated, and we have two players, I believe, who are on pace for that right now, because Judge has 80 already. Yeah. A couple of their hitting leftovers here.

Kyle Schwabber, Asak in a shoe, his 28th home run, his ninth steel, and Nick Kurtz, one more homer, 14 home runs for him, who all of a sudden, he's up to an 851 OPS. Yeah, that'll happen when you're homering every single day. Last 30 games, he has 13 home runs, 33 RBI, and OPS over a thousand? Oh my gosh, he, uh... He's really good. And look, that's kind of the example for Jack Caglio.

Now, it's not definitely going to play out this way, but Nick Kurtz got off to an incredibly slow start, and then boom, it just kind of clicked for him, and he took off. So, again, not necessarily going to happen that way, but it can. That is what can happen for someone like Jack Caglione down the stretch. Some pitching leftovers, Nick Povetta was great against the D-Backs, five-and-two-thirds shutout with seven strikeouts for him. I don't know if you feel this way, Chris.

It's been a great season for Povetta. I feel like he's just always kind of towing that, line, you know, it's just, he gives up a lot of hard contact. Sometimes he walks too many batters, but. I had those two bad starts at the beginning of June, and I started catastrophizing. I was just like, this is it. It's over. It sounds like something I would do.

Luckily, it didn't, but like, that's what I'm always on. I'm going to always be, Nick Povetta could have like a Zach Wheeler run for the next seven years where he, you know, challenges for a Cy Young every year. And if he gives up seven runs and four innings, I'm still going to be like, this is it. This is the end. I don't think Nick Povetta is actually going to do that. I don't think he's that good. But yeah, no, I'm completely snigvitten on Nick Povetta.

I'm terrified of it. Will Warren bounce back against the Mariners, five and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts for him. Last time out, eight earned runs. He's down to 79% rostered. I think that's fair. You could say he should be dropped in even more leagues than that. Look, there's talent here. He's just been very inconsistent, and I guess that's expected from a rookie starting pitcher.

And Hunter Brown, man, what happened here against the guardians of all teams? Six innings, six earned runs allowed a season high for Hunter Brown, who also had three walks. He allowed two home runs, 11 hard hits. So very clearly did not have his best stuff. You know, three walks, all that hard contact, you give up some home runs, and this can happen against any major league. lineup, but a little surprising with how great he's been and how bad the guardians have been. Just didn't seem to have his command in this one. Only through 40% of his four seamers in the strike zone.

Only 42% of his pitches overall. The four seamer and sinker actually both had a zone percentage of 40% or below. So it just did not seem to be commanding the ball while Hunter Brown. But I, no concerns there. The call to the bullpen for the Tigers. Will Vest got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He allowed a hit, but struck out three for his 15th save. For the Royals, Carlos Estevez got the ninth with the game tied. He allowed a hit, but that was it. And then he wound up with the win because the Royals walked it off. For the Brewers, Trevor McGill struck out two for his 21st save.

For the Mets, Edwin Diaz pitched a scoreless ninth with the game tied. Wascar Brazabon got the 10th inning with a one-run lead, and he struck out one for his second save. For the Astros, Josh Hader pitched a clean ninth inning with the game tied. He came back out for the 10th, and he gave up that. go-ahead Grand Slam, he took his second loss. Again, the Grand Slam, 334 feet. It was a home run in one out of 30

ballparks, and that was in Houston. For the Padres, Robert Torres picked up his 26th save. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley picked up his 18th save. And then for the Phillies. This is where the fireworks came in. Patrick Bailey did all his damage. Matt Strom pitched in the seventh with a two-run lead.

He struck out two. Later on in the game, but Jordan Romano came on for a five-out save. Orion Kirkring pitched on Tuesday on Monday, excuse me, and he was not good, so I guess they gave him the night off here. But Romano did get the two outs in the eighth. He came back out for the ninth with a two-run lead, and boom gave up a three-run walk-off inside the park home run.

It's just been a disastrous season for Jordan Romano. And if the Phillies are serious about contending, which I think they are, They've got to trade for someone, like they need a closer. I guess Alvarado's going to be back at some point. That's the tough thing is Alvarado, I think is eligible to return

like August 18th or something. But even still, don't you want Arvado? He's not eligible for the postseason. Don't you? So, you know, I- Probably still one of us your eighth-inning guy anyway, right? Yeah, I think they probably should add some. Look, I think Strom is good enough.

And honestly, I think they should just stop messing with it and make him the closer. I think he's the clear best pitcher in that bullpen. But yeah, I think this is a team that that could use another high leverage arm. I will say asking Jordan Romano to get five outs in 2025 just feels unfair. That just feels like setting him up to failure. I'm not even like I'm not even making a joke about it. Like that just like that feels like bad management.

Like that is asking too much for a guy who just has not been up to it this season. And I think that worked out about as you would expect. it to go if you had told me Jordan Romano was going to try to get a five out save. Yeah, I mean, that is just, feels irresponsible to try to do that. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Eric Lauer at the White Sox, Adrian

Houser against the Blue Jays, Andre Palante against the Nationals, Bailey Falter at the Royals, Kate Horton at the Twins, Slate Cicone at the Astros, Brandon Walter against the Guardians and Kumar Rocker at the Angels. Yeah, I think this is a decent day. I like both sides

of the White Sox and Blue Jays, so Lauer Anne Hauser. I like, I think Palante is fine against the Nationals. And Kate Horton at the Twins is okay. And I like Kate, Kumar Rocker at the Angels. So I think there's a lot to like. And even, you know, I know the Guardians had a great day today, but I wouldn't be surprised at Brandon Walter had a good start against them.

Yeah, Wednesday is a good day to stream. I like Lauer. I like Kumar Rocker. I think yesterday I said Brandon Walter, a little bit more nervous here with the Guardians having a good game. I think I would move Cade Horton against up ahead of Brandon Walter now at the Twins, coming off his best start of the season. And then on Thursday we have Charlie Morton against the Mets. Colin Ray is at the Twins.

Logan T. Allen at the White Sox, Mike Soroka at the Cardinals. And Eduardo, no, I can't even say it. I'm not going to say Eduardo Rodriguez. If you look, let's say your ERA is already bad and you just want counting stats, then take the chance on Eduardo Rodriguez. guess because he gets a lot of strikeouts and occasionally gets absolutely bombed i like saroka and i like logan allen i'm not sure how i feel about charlie morton the metts have not been great lately um now their lineup is kind of coming alive again though and but he's looked really good for kind of like two months now um that's true the whip is always high there's a lot of risk

there. I think he's okay. But I like Soroka better than Charlie Morton. I agree with that. I would go Soroka, Logan Allen, and Morton's pitching better than some of these names here, but again, the spot against the Mets, I don't necessarily love that. So I'll put him third on that list. We are going to wrap there for Chris. 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.

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