Fantasy Baseball Today - Monday Standouts; 2021 Keeper Discussion (09/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

Just yesterday we told everybody not to overthink things in the Fantasy Baseball playoffs. DID FRANK OVERTHINK THINGS? ... For our OMGG Monday standouts, Josh Bell is showing signs of life and Dinelson Lamet was dominant once again (4:13). What has helped spark this recent power surge for Bell? How is Scott handling Lamet in 2021? ... On to news and notes, Eric Hosmer is working his way back, Chris Paddack will start this week and the Yankees sluggers are close (11:34). ... The Orioles went off Monday (15:34). Ryan Mountcastle looks legit, DJ Stewart stayed hot and who started Jorge Lopez!? ... How did some of the two-start pitchers fare in their first starts Monday (20:09)? Pablo Lopez bounced back, Jesus Luzardo struggled again and Trevor Bauer or Clayton Kershaw in 2021? ... For Monday's leftovers, Ke'Bryan Hayes stayed hot with a homer and Kyle Lewis has slowed down (33:05). ... Who are we looking at for keepers in 2021 (45:25)? Corbin Burnes vs. Sixto Sanchez vs. Ian Anderson. Can Jack Flaherty get back to his 2019 form? ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! 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. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. 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, Chris, and Adam.

Hey there, and welcome to another edition of Fantasy Baseball today. On a Tuesday, September 15, Frank Stamphill, alongside Scott White, And just yesterday, I sat in this very chair and told people not to overthink things in the fantasy baseball playoffs. Scott, I need your expertise. I need you to tell me if I messed up in our podcast league. Are you ready? Sure. Although, well, how are you doing, Scott, first and foremost?

How's everything going? It's not important. I'm always doing the same. I'm a robot. It's fine. Let's get on with what you did wrong, Frank. Potentially. Potentially what I did wrong. Time will tell. Okay, here were my options. 12 team points league. Head-to-head points league. I had, I picked up Dillon C's for two starts,

even though we told everyone not to start him. Okay, whatever. He's going up against the Twins and at the Reds this week. I had Griffin Canning at home against the Diamondbacks. I had Spencer Turnbull at home against Cleveland. I had Zach Wheeler supposedly against the Blue Jays, but is he really? Is he going to start this week? I had no idea I was trying to research. He threw a bullpen session on Monday, but there was no confirmation whether he was going to start. And I said, you know what? Well, it's the playoffs. I have to make sure that I get something rather than nothing. And that was the same case with Max Fried. Couldn't find anything. Like, is Max Fried starting this week? He's eligible to return. I couldn't find anything. So you know what

I did Scott? I started Dillon Cease and he gave me five fantasy points. I thought there was something on Freed yesterday that made it pretty clear he was coming back this week. So I was with you, actually. I mean, I was with you in not recommending cease to the masses, but if those were your only choices, I could see why you went with cease. I don't know what was available on the waiver that you could have turned to instead. I don't know how deep the league is, but based on those options you gave me, I was with you until you brought up Freed. Okay. I would have gone with Freed. Now I'm reading this. Max Fried is expected to return to the brave starting rotation Friday against the Mets.

But even knowing that, I still think there's a chance that he can be limited in his first start back. He's someone that typically doesn't go deep into starts anyway. It's a head-to-head points league. So that was something that was in the back of my mind.

Oh, and I have Dallas Kikel on my I are. So I could have put him in, but he's also returning from injury. So you know, these were the decisions I had, Scott, and I didn't really love any of them. So I went with Dylan Seas. And he was pitching all right, but I only got me five fantasy points.

Eh. Well, it was a points league, which is notable because you still got a positive result out of it, even though he walked five and four and two-thirds innings and had, you know, not such a great start. It wasn't a disaster. And in a points league, you can live with that, especially knowing there's another start coming. You hope that one is better and not worse. It should be. The Reds is a better matchup, so.

Yeah. I hope so. Instead of the twins is who we face today. So, yeah. I think I think I understand why you made the call that you did, and I can't come down as hard on you as the audience probably wants me to. You know, I actually really debate. I was like, you know what?

I'm just going to text Scott. I'm going to text Scott to ask what he would do, but you know what? I'm a grown man. I said, I'm going to make my own decision. But enough about me, I just wanted to empathize with. any of our listeners out there or viewers on YouTube, fantasy baseball, uh, today. How dare you start to ensize Frank going against my recommendation as well as your own?

You deserve to rot for that move. I do. I do. I do. Yeah. I do deserve that. You do. All right.

On to Monday's action. The rest of Monday's action. Let's take a look at some standouts. Oh my good goodness gracious. All right. Get a started here. Scott. A standout from Monday.

Whether good, bad. whoever you'd like to highlight. Okay, so the standout for Monday that I'm going to go with is actually Josh Bell. It's Josh Bell. That's who I'm going with. He homered. It wasn't his only hit, but he homered.

Homered now in three of four games. And only three strikeouts in those last eight games. This is shaping up to be. be a very interesting final two weeks. Still, I was going to say a week and a half, but it's still more like two weeks, especially, yeah, they still have seven games on the schedule this week. Shaving up to be a very interesting final two weeks for Josh Bell, because he could rehabilitate his value quite a bit if he goes on a tear here and potentially remain a top

10 first basement heading into next season. Right now, he strikes me as one of the most. difficult hitters to rank for 2021, alongside guys like J.D. Martinez and Marcus Simeon. And I probably come up with a whole list of names, but Bell is up there for sure. He's looking more like, you know, very recently here,

he's looking a lot more like last year's Josh Bell. Yeah, he has 13 hits over his last eight games, and I looked into that small sample size, and the strikeouts are down, as you mentioned. The hard contact during this eight-game stretch was like 72% according to Fangraphs, so that's great. Still hitting a lot of ground balls.

That was, I would say, among the biggest changes for Josh Bell in 2019 was that he started hitting more fly balls and decreased his ground ball usage. And this year, he's up over 52% ground ball rate. The bat of ball data, according to statcast, he's still hitting the ball very hard. His average exit velocity is actually up this season,

but his launch angle is down, so that's what I need to see over these last couple of weeks. If I'm going to be buying to Josh Bell, albeit small sample size, but just can't take those... The whole thing's a small sample size. That's right, everything is small. How many... You know, if we created like a fantasy baseball today drinking game

for every time we said small sample size throughout the season, Scott, we would have some very intoxicated listeners out there. But yes, Josh Bell is someone that I wanted to highlight as well. But for me, I wanted to take a look at, not that it's anything crazy. The guy's been great all season, but Denelson Lemette against the Dodgers of all teams. Tough matchup. Seven innings, three hits, one earned, two walks, 11 strikeouts, 18 swinging strikes on 98 pitches for Lamet,

14 whiffs on the slider, which he threw 60% of the time in this start. I wanted to ask, how are you handling Denelson Lament heading into next season? I've seen some people, some other fantasy analysts on Twitter are a little hesitant on Lament because he is strictly a two-pitch pitcher. My argument against that,

well, there's no argument. I mean, that is a fact. That is a factual statement. But what I would say is, I think for Lomet, he's in a similar mold to Tyler Glass now where the two pitches that those pitchers possess

are so good that they might just be able to get away with it. You're talking about like a 97-98-mile-per-hour fastball for both Lamet and Tyler for Glassnow. And Lamet has like an 87-88-mile-per-hour slider, which generates all these whiffs. He might be able to get away with it, Scott. Yeah, I think the two-pitch argument

carried a lot more weight coming into this season when he was still largely unproven than it does now. the fact that four of his last six starts, he's gone six innings plus. And three of those four was actually the plus, not just being pulled after six innings. So really taking on the workload of a front line type pitcher. He has yet to go less than five innings in any start this year, which I guess shows how consistently effective he's been. So that comparison with Tyler Glass now is a good one. In terms of how I rank him, he,

is probably going to be linked very closely for me with Blake Snell because I think the I think the strengths and we like the main concern for me with Lamed is is still how consistently will he throw six plus it's been very consistent lately and so that's encouraging but you know that's obviously not a longstanding trend and that's still the main concern with me for Snell even though I know the strikeout number is still going to be very big considering it that's that's kind of the profile I'm seeing for Lament right now. Today on the show, by the way, we are going to recap the rest of Monday's action, but we have some Keeper Talk.

We're going to answer your questions a little bit later on, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com, and just take a look at some players who went later on in drafts this year, who you might be able to keep for a solid value heading into next season. And as we've done, you know, the past couple of weeks, I want to keep people engaged, Scott, people who are out of their fantasy baseball playoffs. I want people to come back and continue to listen

and watch Fantasy Baseball today. And one way to do that is continuing to talk about next year's value. I brought up the names, Lamet and Glassnow. They're similar. Who would you rather have heading into next year? Who can you see yourself ranking higher between the two? Those two? You're asking me about those two specifically?

Yeah, Glass Now versus Lamet. I'll put Glass now higher. I still think, particularly with the way he's rebounded here recently, he might have as much start-for-start upside as anybody. and I don't know. I'd have to do a side-by-side comparison. That's not something I've done in a long time because I say that and I know

I know Lament has several double-digit strikeout efforts this season so maybe what I'm saying is not necessarily wrong about Glass now but Lamet's close to that than I'm giving him credit for. But I suspect, you know, I brought up Snell as a comparison. I suspect right now that the order I'd rank those three is Glass Now followed by Lament, followed by Snell. And I don't know how many other pitchers would be in that same range, but that's how I'd order those three.

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good order. I like that. And I think that they will all kind of be in the 18 to 25 range at starting pitcher, just off the top of my head. I feel like that makes sense. It's like an SP2, high-end SP3. Right now I have Glass Now 18, Lament, 25, and Snell 30.

So it's just funny that you pick 18 to 25 range and that's the exact number that two of them were. I'm pretty good at this, huh, Scott? But Tyler Glassnow on the season has been a little unlucky as a 4.47 ERA. His ex-fip is 2.88. So the numbers say that Glassnow has been pretty ridiculous. He's a 14K per 9.

It's just, that's crazy. Some news and notes. What else do we have going on? Eric Hosmer was able to work out on Monday without a splint to protect the fractured index finger on his left hand. There's no official timetable, but there's a chance. He returns next week for the final week of the season. Speaking of the Padres, Tommy Fam has been participating in intrasquod games

at the Padres alternate training site in recent days and could be activated from the IL in the near future. Chris Paddock completed a bullpen session Monday and appears on track to start either Wednesday against the Dodgers or Friday against the Mariners. Cross your fingers. take that Friday start against the Mariners over the Dodgers for sure. Reese Hoskins was placed on the 10-day injury list Monday due to an issue with the UCL in his left

arm. Hate to see it. Yay, y, y, yeah, yeah, that's not good. Not good at all. Hoskins had been considered day-to-day after his x-ray came back negative, but the team has elected to place him on the IL anyway. So hopefully you got that news before you set your lineups for either the playoffs or the final couple of weeks here in your roto leagues.

Justin Turner could be reinstated from the IL Tuesday for the Dodgers. Miguel Suno was scratched from Monday's lineup with a stiff neck. Eddie Rosario was also out with that elbow contusion he suffered on Sunday. For the Yankees, Gio Rochella is expected back on Tuesday. John Carlos Stanton should be later this week, and Aaron Judge just appeared in a sim game, so he shouldn't be too far behind those gentlemen. Sonny Gray, who was placed on the IL with a mid-back strain,

is hopeful he can return during the final week of the season. Speaking of returns, Mitch Keller returned, and he was at the Reds on Monday. Three innings, two hits, three earned, four walks, four strikeouts. Not really a great game. It's actually pretty bad. But Scott, the fastball velocity was up over 95 miles per hour, so I was pleasantly surprised by that.

Well, yeah, we needed to see this. We needed to see this because before he went on the aisle with his oblique injury, he was two miles per hour lower than last year. And that was, if that's how his season ended, that would be scary. You know, not having any idea what to expect from him going into 21. And I guess we still don't have a great idea, but we at least know the same tools are there for him to work with. And while I can't imagine anybody's going to put him in their lineup after this start,

you know, he still has a couple more turns here to put together a promising effort that then has us hyping him as a sleeper all over again next year. I hope so, because, you know, I'm a fan of those pirates. Mitch Keller and Joe Musgrove just can never get enough. How about those brave, Scott? They signed Pablo Sandoval to a minor league contract. Not fantasy relevant at all, but just worth mentioning because he's the panda and it's kind of fun. I don't think this is fantasy related either, but maybe it is.

John Heyman announced the sale of the New York Mets to Steve Cohen on Monday for about $2.5 billion. How this could affect fantasy is if the Mets spend more money now, which if you know anything about the Will Pons, I talked to my Mets friends and they were ecstatic that this finally came through. You know that Steve Cohen will spend more money than they did. So I would not be surprised if the Mets have a very active offseason right away this off season. I think it's going to be kind of a unique one, given everything that's happened with like the pandemic and just this season in general. We don't know how things are going to be for the start of the 2021 season, obviously. But I think that the Mets might actually be involved here in the off season.

So something to pay attention to. Congrats to the Mets fans out there. Jake Lamb made his Oakland A's debut today. Well, not today when you're listening to this on Monday, and had two hits and a home run for any AL-only players out there. So Monday recap. Shout out to the Orioles. Oh, my gosh. Big game.

They went 14 to 1 against your brave, scout. I'm sorry. But a lot of big performances here. Jose Iglesias, four hits, including a home run. He's batting 370 with an 891 OPS. I realize we haven't talked about Jose Iglesias much this season, but like, there's a few names. Like him, Miguel Rojas and Donovan Solano have just been like the weirdest standout

middle infielers of all time. And I just keep waiting for them to fall off. And I just don't think it's going to happen in a two-month season. They've just, they've been great all-season, Scott. Yeah, I mean, the profile looks like the bat-a-ball profile that they've all delivered looks like that of someone who hits for average, right? So, you know, maybe over a full-length season, they would be able to sustain a batting average over 300.

but 370 you know probably not probably not if things had a chance to play out that probably would not be that that probably would not hold and obviously there's not much power there especially for Iglesias and Miguel Rojas so you know as far as batting averages specialists go they're probably not that interesting I mean it's Obviously you would take a 370 batting average over two months if you knew that was going to happen at the beginning for any of them but of course there was no way of knowing that so I think you've missed your chance to enjoy any of the benefits there.

Ryan Moucassel, aka the goat, just continues to hit three hits including his fifth home run in 22 games. That is a 36 home run pace over the course of a full season. He is batting 364. DJ Stewart stayed hot on Monday. hit his seventh home run in just 19 games thus far. He hits the ball very hard. We've talked about him a few times now.

Hits lots of fly balls. The bowler rate is through the roof for DJ Stewart. I'd say, look, if you want to ride the hot hand, you need power in that Bobby Dalbeck kind of sense that, you know, there's been no shortage of power recently. Dollbeck, Duval, DJ Stewart, and Stewart is still just 27% rostered so you can pick him up in CBS leagues everywhere. Cedric Mullins. Another one that was impressive on Monday. Two for five, two RBI, three runs scored,

picked up his sixth steal of the season. He is just four percent rostered. So if you need steals, in a head-to-head categories, or in a roto league, Cedric Mullins, he's a name that, you know, I was actually kind of hyped about heading into, when was it? I guess last year, the 2019 season, and he just was not good. He's playing pretty well now, Scott. Any interest, Cedric Mullins? I mean, only if Steeles was specifically the need. The most interesting of these by far is Mountcastle, who I don't understand why he hasn't gotten picked up in more leagues yet. I think enough people are still paying attention

that it should be up over 50, you know, it should be up over 60%. And it's not. He looks like must start. Well, whoa, whoa, Scott, 63% for Ryan Mountcastle. Oh, okay, good. He finally did eclipse that. And then the one I must.

intrigued by is DJ Stewart because he's walking a lot. He did in the minors as well. He didn't strike out that much in the miners. He has during this stint in the majors where he's homered seven times in his last nine games. And

if he keeps striking out like he has, he'll obviously come crashing down. But since there is that track record in the minor leagues of him not striking out so much, I mean, what are the chances he puts it all together? He's already 26, so it needs to happen sooner than but he might be one of those late bloomer types.

And then I saved the best for last, God. Are you ready for this? Jorge Lopez, Jorge Lopez of the Orioles. How about this? Through seven innings of one run ball picks up the win. And one of our listeners, Dan Zumo, actually started him against me in the podcast league, in the playoffs, gave him 24 and a half fantasy points as a spark.

Aye, aye, aye, yeah, yeah. Against the Braves, no less. Seriously. And how about this? It's a total disaster. The one person who scored a run off of him, Freddie Freeman, who is Dan's first baseman. Come on.

It's all coming up, Dan. Gosh. Lieutenant Dan, trying to take me out. Gosh. Jorge Lopez. All right. Some two-star pitcher updates. Pablo Lopez.

Wow, we. What a bounce back here, Scott. I will say. Pablo Lopez. Like, let's not jump the gun too much here. Because there was no JT. Real Muto. There was no Reese Hoskins in the lineup for the Phillies, but he took care of business, so we'll give him credit. Seven innings, three hits, one earned, zero walks, six strikeouts.

A much need of bounce back performance for Pablo Lopez, 13 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, including five whiffs on the changeup. I feel like this is a study that either someone should do, maybe they have done, I have to look into it, but I feel like any time a pitcher, a somewhat decent pitcher, Scott, gets rocked. The next time out, that pitcher is usually pretty good. Like, they know what they need to work on, and they normally bounce back. I don't know how

factual it is, but I just feel like it's something I've noticed in the past. Well, I think the odds are better than not, if it is actually a good pitcher. I think the jury's still out on how good Pablo Lopez is,

but the data still looked good for him. And it's like, the ex-fip. We were making apologies for him after the way his last start went that was the 29 run affair for the Braves and the previous start wasn't so great for Lopez either, but we still liked a lot of what we were

seeing. I advised him using him for this two-start week. I chickened out in the league is where I have him. I had a lot of other good pitching options so it was like Dane Dunning with two starts or Pablo Lopez with two starts and I went Dunning.

So hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me, but there's still a lot to like about Pablo Lopez. He is a really, really good ground ball pitcher, and the whiff rate is better than you'd expect for a ground ball pitcher like that. He tends to throw a lot of strikes, pitches deep into games.

Yeah, I mean, hopefully he doesn't get rocked too often, but it's been a lot more good than bad this year. Yeah, and if you started him in the two-star week, his next start is against the nationals, and that's actually the better match of the two between the Phillies and the nationals. So I feel pretty good heading into that next one. If you started, Pablo Lopez.

Jesus Lozardo, my man, what is going on? At Seattle on Monday. Four and two thirds. Seven hits, four earned. Zero walks, seven strikeouts. So you love the K-to-walk ratio there, but he allowed three home runs. The ERA for Lazzardo is up to 4.32.

He did have 12 swinging strikes 82 pitches. It is worth noting. I'm going to try to make an excuse here because I am just a Lazzardo advocate. This is my guy. That the two teams were playing through some rough air conditions due to the wildfires that are going on throughout the country.

Hope everyone is safe. But Lazzardo had this to say. Quote, I am a healthy 22-year-old. I shouldn't be gasping for air. I guess you could say, or missing oxygen when I'm kind of getting to the line. so I'll leave it at that. So it sounds like that's something

that might have affected him here in this start, Scott, but overall, I think Luzardo has been a little bit more inconsistent than we were hoping heading into the season. Yeah, he has. He has, and a little less dominant, too, frankly. Like, it's weird.

I think the shared concern for Luzardo heading into the season wasn't about effectiveness at all. It was about how often would he pitch beyond five innings, you know? He has quite a bit. Like, that hasn't been, like, they've really ridden him when he's been pitching well.

So that's, you know, that's not even really in play anymore. It's just, does he, frankly, does he miss enough bats? And I think, I think he shows the potential to,

like if you break down his pitches individually, they all seem like they should. So I don't know if it's a pitch mix thing or maybe leaning a little too much on the sinker to get early contact. You know, I don't know what kind of message. Sometimes young pitchers get that message.

You don't have to strike everybody out. I don't know. Just him to put the ball in play. Well, we'd rather you strike everybody out. But, you know, who knows what he's been hearing. I think the skills are definitely there for him to dominate. I'm not really, like, from a long-term perspective, downgrading him based on the way this year's gone.

There's been a lot of good, too. But, yeah, a little less consistent than we hope for. I will say the swinging strike rate so far this season. it's without Monday start included here, but a 12.3% swinging strike rate, that is better than league average. According to Fangraphs, a 29% hard contact rate. That is way better than league average. So not giving up a lot of hard contact. I think the walks have been a little inconsistent at times this year as well. Some of the control, I think, has been off for Lazardo at times. But I'm going to go back to the well. If anyone wants to downgrade him heading into next year, with all the pitchers

that are kind of ascending right now towards the end of the season, the Corbyn, Burns, the 6thel Sanchez. I think Lizarro is going to be someone that gets pushed down a little bit. And if I get him as like an SP3 or SP4 heading into 2021, fine. I love it. Please give it to me. Welcome back. Quangian Kim.

He was at the Brewers on Monday. He was great. Seven shutout. Six strikeouts, three hits, three walks allowed. Only seven swinging strikes on 87 pitches, but that's not really Kim's game. Did get nine ground ball outs. And it looks like his final two. start, Scott, will be at the pirates and against the Brewers again. He is 67% roster, so I don't

really know that he's available anywhere. But I think if you have him, you can feel comfortable getting him back in there. Well, at least in those matchups, you know, Pirates and Brewers, Scott. Yeah, I mean, that's one way of putting it. The matches are good, like you said. He's just been such a perplexing pitcher to me because it's a so-so ground ball rate, a bad decay rate. an okay walk rate. So what is he actually good at? I mean, he's been getting weak contact, but that's not particularly for a pitcher

who doesn't have like a longstanding history with that, like a Kyle Hendricks. That's not something I'm inclined to trust. It seems like that goes in and out pretty quickly. So, yeah, I really don't trust Kim. And I'm shocked after I, Elston, he ended up going seven innings. Yeah, he was efficient.

He threw 87 pitches over seven innings. Right, right. But, yeah, I'm still not buying into Hinton that hard. I mean, I understand as a streaming option. That's fine, but I don't view him as like a must start or anything. I agree, but I just like those matchups, man. Pirates and Brewers Final Two looks pretty good there. For Quang Yun Kim, Kim.

Trevor Bauer. Another gem. I am very interested to see what happens with Trevor Bauer in the offseason. It was against the Pirates in the first game of their doubleheader today. Six and a third, four hits, one earned, two walks, 12 strikeouts for Bauer in this one, 17 swinging strikes on 105 pitches. Nine on the curve, five on the cutter. That is now one run or less in six of eight starts for Bauer this season.

Scott, if the season ended today, would Trevor Bower be locked into your top 10 starting pitchers for next season? So right now, my rankings, I have him seventh. I know when we did our draft, and we may not have agreed exactly how those first two rounds would have go. We were taking turns picking, but I know we had Udarvish ahead of him and Walker Bueller ahead of him, and I probably have like Max Scherzer ahead of him.

So that, it'd be borderline. It'd be borderline. But I think more likely than now, Bauer would be in the top 10. Just it's with some trepidation there because of all the different versions of Bauer we've seen over the years. But this year's version, obviously, it's about as good as it gets. And I want more of that next year, buddy. Trevor Bauer do more of that. Yeah, look, it's...

I can't come up with an argument. Like, at this point, Trevor Bauer has made me look like the biggest fool. And for that, you know, I should be mad at him. I'm mad he's doing what he's supposed to do, right? He's getting it done. Trevor Bauer has been fantastic this season. The problem is you were able to get Bauer this year,

you know, sometimes outside the top 20 starting pitchers is a mid-round pick, the fifth, sixth, seventh round pick at times. next year Trevor Bauer is going to be a top three-round pick again. He's going to be, you know, I think a borderline second, early third-round pick. So that's where, like, the volatility comes back into play, where you have to, like, actually, it's the opportunity cost of having to draft Trevor Bauer. And I'm probably not going to have any shares of him again next year

just because of how high he's going to be drafted. Scott, let me ask you, who would you rather have Trevor Bauer or Clayton Curshaw? Kershaw on Monday, six and a third, three earned runs. Nine strikeouts, the ERA is up to 2.28, but, I mean, for the most part, he's been great this year as well. Bauer or Kershaw, Scott? Hmm. Hmm. I think I'm inclined to say Bauer.

Yeah. Right in the heart. It's the rubber arm thing with him that's hard to overcome because I, like, that's going to be one of the weirdest thing heading into next season is how is. how is any pitcher going to be handled after you know throwing less than 100 innings right nobody's getting to 100 this year no nobody's getting to 100 maybe in the playoffs it's possible someone will

have to calculate that out but the bottom line is it's going to be well below 200 so who's going to make that hundred inning jump who are teams going to allow to do that who's who's not going to struggle to do that and that's really difficult to answer like I don't know if Luzardo needs to be downgraded. Sixthos Sanchez, we've talked about maybe having him in the top 20.

I don't know how much those guys need to be downgraded just on that alone. Are the Marlins going to jeopardize Sixthosanches' long-term health, pushing him to 180 innings, knowing how much of a jump that was from this year? I don't know. I don't think I would if I were them. Someone we're also going to have that conversation about is going to be Corbyn Burns, who has been the talk of the town recently and rightfully so. on Monday, four and two thirds, one earned, 10 strikeouts, three walks.

He didn't go very deep into the start. He got in trouble with some walks and lots of strikeouts, so the pitch count got up, 17 swinging strikes for Burns and the start on 101 pitches, 10 on the cutter. A bit of a mixed bag here, Scott, but I think we're probably going to have that conversation for Corbyn Burns as well. Is there anything else you wanted to add here that you saw out of Burns today? No, I mean, the encouraging trend we saw with the control

and the walks being down. I mean, three walks in this start, and he threw, I think, less than 60% of his pitches for strikes. So, you know, a step back there after a couple steps forward. But ultimately, I don't think it changes how I'm valuing him in any way.

His counterpart, Daniel Ponce de Leon, has not been good this season, but he was pretty good here. Six innings pitch, two earned, nine strikeouts, only one walk. He's really struggled with walks this season. But 17 swinging strikes on 97 pitches, Daniel Ponce de Leon, only 4%

rostered on CBS, and like Kim, looks like his last two starts will be against the pirates and either the Royals or the Brewers. So, well, you're assuming he continues to start for them. I mean, this was a great start, but it was his first appearance of any kind

since August 28th, and if Carlos Martinez is a fixture in the rotation now, I don't know, they probably have double-headers coming up next week, too. They might just have to leave him in because of the double headers. Let's check here. I got it pulled up.

Yeah, they got eight games next week. Okay, fair enough. I don't know if those matchups are going to line up quite as you put them out there, but I would guess Ponce de Leon at least has one more start left, if not two. Yeah, it's not a must start by any means, but I think, look, in deeper leagues, you need a streamer, just good matchups. These pitching matchups for the Cardinals over the final two weeks look very, very enticing. So just keep that in mind.

Some leftovers from Monday, a few more things to hit on. You mentioned Josh Bell, his teammate, Cabrian Hayes, hit his second home run of the season. He's batting a cool 316 early on, making a lot of hard contact. He was averaging 95 miles per hour, exit velocity, entering Monday's action. Cabrion Hayes has been performing well. Luis Torren, someone that we mentioned, if you were in a pinch in terms of the catcher position on yesterday's podcast, he had two hits, including his first Major League home run on Monday. And who else will we have here?

Kyle Lewis hit a three-run homer, his 10th. He's really slowed down. His first 28 games, 372 batting average, six home runs with a 23% strikeout rate. His next 18 games, this is Kyle Lewis, a 152 batting average, four home runs, and a 32% strikeout rate. Scott's shaking his head because Scott knows deep down that he was right, and right after you made your apology to Kyle Lewis like I have done for so many players this season he started to come back to Earth

that's the worst the worst I really like because the season long K rate is now 26%. So is that the one we're supposed to look at or are we supposed to look at that one over the last 18 days like you said? I don't know.

I don't know. I still think like my original stance on Kyle Lewis is just he's he's going to be useless in the long run. And I still don't think that's true. So I was right to, I'm going to stick with I was right to soften my stance some.

But, you know, I may have gone a little too far. And maybe everybody went a little too far in anointing him the next great thing to grace our lineups in the outfield. He's really fun to watch. There's no doubt. I've seen some highlight plays from him, some catches out of Kyle. I think he's interesting.

I think, you know, in the long run, you're right. Like, he's not going to be the player we saw early on this season. But if he can settle in as a, I don't know, 250 to 260 hitter who gives you pop and maybe he steals you a few bags, like, yeah, that's a useful player in Roto leagues with five outfielders. So keep that in mind. But I think it's probably more realistic for Kyle Lewis. He's got anything to see here with Mike Minor because he pitched against the Mariners on Monday.

Seven shutout with eight strikeouts. How about this? He had 19. striking strikes, 16 of them came on the four-seam fastball which averaged 90.3 miles per hour. Right. So it's still down from last year by a couple miles per hour. It's like it's not like it got better. I don't know. I don't know why the Mariners weren't able to touch it. I don't know. I didn't watch it. I'm not sure if watching it would have told me anything. But yeah, I don't, I don't see.

Like this, this just looks like a blip. A blip for minor, and I would still avoid him rest of season. A few bullpen notes, Brandon Kinsler pitched in the ninth inning for the Marlins, up six to two on Monday. So I brought up Yemi Garcia as a name

just because he picked up a save over the weekend, but still seems like Kinsler is the guy, but pay attention. And then Yoshiharao picked up a save with a one-run lead for the Mariners. that was his second save of the season. Just a name to pay attention to. If you are desperate for saves in some roto or category leagues,

are we going to hit a quick break? But first, I do want to remind everybody that I know football is back, and while we're recording, it's actually Monday Night Football is playing right here behind me, and baseball is winding down. But let's not forget about golf.

The U.S. Open is here, and the first cut golf podcast has you covered this week for the second major of the year, the first cut crew is coming at you with two preview episodes full of picks and DFS analysis, plus round by round recaps. After every day of action at winged foot, the first cut golf podcast is available. Wherever you listen to podcasts, go download and subscribe today.

Also, let me just quickly address an Apple podcast review that we received recently. A little bit of a rant here, Sky. Tell me if I'm being too harsh. but this one came from Matuli 21. He said, Quote, asking for five stars to answer questions is a joke.

I will just say that we do this podcast because we love fantasy baseball and we love helping people win their leagues. Look, there is no doubt about that. Honestly, like, I will go winless in all of my leagues if that means like all the listeners wins all of their leagues.

I truly mean that. I don't know that I mean that, but that's fine. That's fine. Good for you. rack. Now, if you genuinely think that we deserve a one-star rating on Apple, that is fine. Leave it, leave the review and explain why. I'm all for constructive criticism. But the reason we ask for this is because it helps the podcast with searchability on Apple.

Is it really the worst thing if we answer a question in exchange for a podcast rating? I don't think so, Scott, but that's just me. So I'll just leave it there and rant over. Thanks for your one-star rating and review Matuli 21. I think it would have been a better rant if you had the angry voice to use with it. That would have earned us like five more one-star ratings. Speaking of some APR questions, let's answer some of these APR questions quick. From Theo 1017, strictly speaking, Arsenal, what pitcher do you think that has the best stuff in baseball? I am leaning Walker Bueller, not me.

that's what Theo has to say. He thinks Walker Bueller has just the best stuff in baseball. Oh, okay. Man, I should have an answer ready to go, huh? I have one. I'm going to go with Jacob to Grom, who I think should be still the first pitcher taken off the board next year.

throws 100 miles per hour, 93 mile per hour slider. I mean, I can't. Just getting better with age. I can't really think of a good argument against that. Shane Bieber has kind of the obvious answer. Yeah, like, Bieber has some nasty stuff, too. Right. But those are a few of, like, you know, the obvious answers.

Yeah, I mean, Corbyn Burns is, like, I know we just talked about him, so that's just top of mind answer, but he does seem to have nasty stuff, and, you know, a little less obvious of an answer there. Yeah. Corbin Burns is awesome. I'm looking through our rankings now to see. Like, if I'm just talking about it. specific pitches.

Luis Castillo's change up. Yep. Is awesome. That is ridiculous. Tyler Glassnow's breaking ball, you know, coupled with his near 100 mile per hour fastball is awesome to watch. Blake Snell's curve ball is fantastic. Those are a few that come to,

to Nelson Lemette slider. Those are just a few general pitches. But, yeah, I'd probably go with Jacob de Grom. This one is from Magistrid 99. In a 10-team points league, rest of season, which three of these five outfielers would you choose? Ian Hap, Nick Cassianoz, Ryan Mountcastle, Will Myers, and Mike Yistremski.

Ooi. Hap, Cassianos, Mountcastle, Myers, Yistremski. Rest of season. Yeah, for like this point in the season, I kind of have to look at the schedules and see how many games each of those teams are playing. I know the Orioles have seven more games this week, and they play six games next week.

But I only know that because I was just looking at T.J. Stewart in one of my leagues. And so it's a, the Cubs and Giants both have just five this week, but they both have seven next week. And it might become eight for the Giants if they get a double header in there. So I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it doesn't matter that much the game difference for these specific players, especially now that we have that Monday where a lot of them were sitting out. is in the past now.

So I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with Yostrimski and... I think you still got to play... So the Padres actually have just five games next week. Maybe it becomes six if there's a double header. They actually seem like they're disadvantaged in that way. So I'm going to leave out Myers.

I'm going to go Yistrimski happen, Castianos. You know, I thought Cassiano's was a lock here. I just... He's batting 231. Scott, what happened to Nick Castianos, man? Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm not. Happ is slowed down a little bit too.

The strikeouts. Agu Castellos, Mountcastle, and Yistramski. I love Mountcastle, man. He's awesome. And he's just hot right now, too. We're kind of splitting hairs here. We're pointing out Castianos' expected batting average is $2.94,

so I haven't really been concerned about him. I understand it's been a little disappointing, especially after he got off to a hot start. I think those are the three names I'd go with, But like, it's hard to pick a three that would be clearly wrong, you know? Yeah, they're all good players. This last one, this APR question comes from Jeff Francisco. And it's a keeper question, which is relevant because after we come back from the break,

we have a ton of keeper questions. Jorge Saler at $11 or Dom Smith at $2, where salaries increase $3 annually. Did you read who this was too, dear, you know, the deer. Dear Amos, Freddie, and Cookie. Yeah. I was, I've been thinking about it all podcasts because I'm thinking Amos must be famous Amos since there's cookie in there, but maybe that's that's a red herring. Right. Yeah, I think they're just, is it too obvious? Famous Amos cookies?

Little chocolate chip cookies? Well, yeah, but what is Freddy? Oh, Freddy. Hmm. Anyway. Man, I feel like I shouldn't say, Dominic Smith here, but I kind of want to. Jorge Salare is $9 more. I feel like $14, assuming,

I'm not sure how deep this format is, but assuming it's standard 12 teams, $14 for Jorge Salar. He's not going to go for much more than that. So I feel like Dominic Smith for $5 just makes, it's the only one that makes sense, and one that makes more sense anyway. Okay. These are Kansas City Royals

from the early 70s, Freddie Patik, Cookie Rojas, Amos, and apparently Lou Panella. There's a picture of all four of them standing together. In Royals,

in Royals jerseys. I'll take it. It sounds right, so it has to be right. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to answer your keeper questions

here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back, and we have keeper questions for the 2021 season. So let's jump right in. This one's from Michael, 16 team head-to-head categories. Pick two of these. Will Smith, the catcher.

Alberto Mondesie, John Carlos Stanton, Framber Valdez, and Dean Kramer. Two of those, Scott, in a head-to-head categories league. Mondesie? As annoying as he is. I think you have to go stand. I kind of want, I'm tempted to say Valdez, knowing how heavily I'm going to go after starting pitching next year. but particularly since it's a categories league and not a points league i think i'm still leaning stanton there and it's 16 team power becomes harder to replace i'm so over stanton but

oh i'm sending that clip to chris dowers expect an email tomorrow i know but i do i do agree with you even with you know got the yankee hat on but stanton is so so frustrating what do you that you to keep him over Valdez? Yeah, I would go with those two. I agree. Okay. This one's from Patrick. I'm in a 14-team, six-keeper roto league, and I need to pick one of the four as my final keeper. Max Scherzer, J.D. Martinez, Whitmerfield,

and just for fun, Jesus Lazzardo. I wouldn't say it's just for fun. I think it's legitimate consideration. But since it's only six keepers, there's still quite a bit of turnover here. I think Scherzer's the easy answer. He's going to be a second or third-round picked next year. Yeah, I think you still have to go with Scherzer there as well. This one's from Cal.

How do you feel about Jack Flaherty and Alex Verdugo as keeper picks for next season? Is Flaherty a regression candidate with a slow season thus far? And has Verdugo shown enough in less than 60 games to warrant a selection? To this point, Verdugo is batting 311 with an 875 OPS. He's quietly been very good. Six home runs, 30 runs scored four steaks. Heels. It's a lot of ground balls.

Jack Flaherty, only six starts, but 308 ERA, 103 whip. The underlying numbers are very similar to 2019. Yeah, I wonder what he means by regression. I guess he means the positive kind of regression. Because, like, skills-wise, Flaherty looks like he's just fine. There's, you know, he just had a,

the way his season played out kind of messed him up. And he's not, yeah, like, he's not going deep into starts, but it's not really his fault. Well, he's finally ready to now. Yeah. I mean, we're not comparing these two, right? We're just talking about them individually. Like, Florida is going to be top 15 starting pitcher easily, maybe top 12 next year.

And Verdugo, you know, the expected stats don't back up the actual stats, even though the actual stats kind of look like what we were projecting him or what we were hoping for in a hopeful projection. So I don't know. I don't know if he'll be quite top 40 among outfielders for me heading into next season. He might be just outside of that. Or he might not. But that's what I'm thinking.

I'm not viewing him as like a stud yet. Yeah, that's the range that I was thinking too. Like back end of the 40s for Verdugo. Don't know that he has to be, you know, one of your three outfielers in a head-to-head points. but I think anything deeper than that, four or five outfielders you start, like, sure. I feel good having Alex Verdugo go there.

And there's always a chance that he takes another step because he's so young. So keep that in mind as well. So like a top 40-ish outfielder with upside, and I agree on Flaherty. This one's from Thomas. Head to Head Points, 12-team league, with six keepers at no cost.

Which of these young starting pitchers would you keep if you could only choose one? And Scott, there's so many people that I feel like are going to have this dilemma heading into next season. but we've got a triple threat cage match here. Corbyn Burns versus Sixto Sanchez versus Ian Anderson. Did you know that entering Monday,

all three of these pitchers had a 0.91 whip? When I looked this up today, my mind was blown. I thought that I had the same page open for everyone. I'm like, I thought I changed a page. Zero point nine, what? They all have exactly a 0.91 whip. It's very interesting. I'm ready to go Burns here.

Of these three. He's been tested the most and still come out with these numbers. And they're the most dominant numbers of the three with the strikeouts and everything. As good as Sanchez and Anderson have been. I still say of these three Sanchez has the highest floor. He's the safest pick for as unproven as he is, but burns with all the strikeouts,

all the bat missing ability. I think he's the one you go with here. Oh, man, this is tough. They all have sub two ERAs, small sample size, ding, take a shot, wherever you are listening. But I think Burns has the highest upside. I think he also has the lowest downside, Scott.

Although Ian Anderson's downside might be low too, but... Yeah, I don't know. The one I'm least confident in at this point is Ian Anderson, and he's been great, and there are a lot of reasons to be enthusiastic about him. He has a 59% ground ball rate. It's crazy. Ian Anderson does? Yeah.

I mean, that's as good as Sanchez, if he can keep that up, he's going to be great. I just don't know how regular part of his profile that was. I never thought of him as quite in those terms when he was coming up as a prospect, but an inconsistent minor league track record and obviously hasn't been tested that hard. But like, I'm not down on Ian Anderson.

You're just, you have to pick nits when you're deciding between three players like this. And all three of these are pitchers that we're going to have that same conversation for. what is their innings limit going to look like for the 2021 season, assuming that it's a full season. So we'll have to keep that in mind. I think as of now I would agree with you on Burns,

but I got to do some deep dive in the offseason. I really like all three of these guys. Six-O Sanchez is just fantastic too. But I'll lean Burns for now as well. From Colin, need three out of four. Mike Trout for a first rounder. Trey Turner for a seventh rounder. Jack Flaredy for a ninth,

Max Freed for a 14th. Leaning towards Trout, Turner, and Flaherty, but with Freed having such a great season, didn't know if he should come into consideration. I think Trout, Turner, and Flaherty are too obvious to even really consider Freed. I think, like, the difference between ninth round pick and 14th round pick isn't enough for me to side

with who I think is the lesser pitcher, Freed versus Flaherty. So, yeah, Trout, Turner, Flaherty. Yeah, I almost, I almost want to say free. I like the five rounds of value you get on Freed and he's probably going to be

like a top 20, top 25 starting pitcher too. I don't think he's going to be very far behind Jack Flaherty either in the rankings. It's just the a five round difference of course matters a lot more if it's first round versus sixth round. True.

The ninth versus 14th. And I feel like the kind of player you draft in the ninth round instead of Flaherty like wouldn't be a make or break player for you. That's a pick that you you know, maybe he's useful for you all season, maybe not. So I don't, I wouldn't really miss having a ninth round pick

in order to keep freed four, five rounds later, you know? All right, you've talked me into it. This one's from Alex. Dear Jimmy, Kima, Lester, and Bunk. Ah, yeah, that's the wire. The wire. 12 team head to head points league. Keep eight forever with no penalty.

We also have four outfielders plus a utility. Locked in, I have Mike Trout, Cody Bellinger, Justin Furlander, Zach Gallen, and Mike Clevenger. I need three more out of Corey Seeger, Kyle Tucker, J.D. Martinez, Whitmerfield, and Corbyn Burns. Three of those five. Seeger's easy. So it's a points league. I think points league you go Burns over any of the hitters. At least I do.

Tucker. Tucker. Yeah, that's what I was thinking to. Sounds good to me. This one's from Timothy. Hello, Jamal and Nicola. Do you know who these are, Scott? Well, the answer's in there.

I wrote an impuretheses to remind myself. Although that's one of the ones that I actually would have known myself. But those are the Denver Nuggets. You've been watching any NBA playoffs here, Scott? Oh, I know. I haven't even thought about it. I'm about to anger Timothy too.

Go Clippers. Let's go. Curious who you'd prefer to keep in my 12 team auctionally $260 budget. Scoring is head-to-head 10 categories with OBP and quality starts instead of batting average and wins, respectively. The keeper price goes up $5 each year. Keep three of the following. Oh, you ready?

Wow, this is a long list. Longer than I thought. Bryce Harper for $41. Jose Ramirez for $22. A. E. E. E. E. Hesnios Juarez for $21. Nick Castellanos for 17. Carlos Correa for 17 Conforto for 15

Corey Seeger for 10 Kyle Tucker for 9 Aaron Nola for 16 Carlos Carrasco for 12 Zach Allen for 7 Chain Bieber for 5 I'll save all the good ones for the end Oh you only need only three

Bieber Bieber at 5 for sure I'm tempted just because of just because man you want that pitching advantage. You want as much pitching as you could get. I'm going even harder after that.

Beber, Nola, Galin. Let's do it, Scott. That's what I'm thinking, but like I hate giving up Jose Ramirez for 22. Yeah. Corey Seeger for 10. But like, yeah, I think like, who knows what other pitchers are being kept by other teams, you know?

And then you may not have a, your pitching staff may completely stink because you just don't have that many that you can draft. So I think you go Bieber, Gallen. and Nola and trust that a lot of hitting is still going to be out there. You're talking back and forth, you almost talk me into, I like Beaver Nola and Siger too. I would narrow it down to those four.

You make the final decision, Timothy, but it sounds like Scott wants to go with the pitchers. All right, we have a few more of these. Let's zoom on through here. From Derek, 10-team 5-5 Roto. We keep 12 players at all at equal cost, and they can be kept for as many years as you want. Four pitchers.

All right, whatever. Who should be my fourth pitcher out of Patrick Corbyn, Zach Plysek, Junjun Riu, and Corbyn Burns? I mean, maybe I'm just on a real Burns kick today, but I'm thinking it burns. Over Corbyn, huh? I think so. I think so.

We'll see how Corbyn's next two starts go, because I think, you know, if his next two are as good as his last one was, maybe I changed my mind. But there are, you know, Corbin hasn't been as good this year in a way that is reflected in the underlying stats too. This one's from Harold. Heads ahead with OBP instead of batting average. I have three spots to fill with my options being, Sixto Sanchez, Davy Garcia, Dane Dunning, Jake Croninworth, Frankie Montas,

Casey Mize, J.D. Martinez, and Alec Bonn. Three of those. Is this keeper or is this starting? I think it's a keeper one. I wrote it down as a keeper question. Okay, so Sixto Sanchez, J.D. Martinez, Alec Bohm. You got me thinking. Keepers four head to head. Yeah, these are keepers.

Who did you say, Scott? Sixtho Sanchez. Sixtho Sanchez, J.D. Martinez, and Alec Bohm. I like it. This one's from Jason. I'm in a 12-team Daily Points League where we keep three players at draft value You must keep at least one batter and one pitcher.

I have Juan Soto for a third, so I'm keeping him, but my pitcher choices are. Max Scherzer for a first, Stephen Shrosberg for a 12th, Corbyn's for a 12th, Sonny Gray for an eighth, Max Fried for a 10th. Which two of those would you choose? Oh, coming, sigh, everybody. Oh, thank you. Oh, man, man. Gosh.

I don't feel like I can eliminate any one of them that easily. Well, what happens if you keep two for a 12th? Does one go to the 11th? Yeah, I assume so. Gosh. Gosh. Scott is struggling. You got to keep Strasbourg for a 12th, right?

Yeah, and I think Sunny Gray for an 8th. Okay. No, it's very close. It's close for sure. Yeah, I mean, Burns for 12th, freed for a 10th. I'm not sure it shouldn't be. be either of them. I'm not sure. It shouldn't even be Shursor for a first, even though I know he won't get drafted in the first round next year. But yeah, okay, I'll go with you. Strausburg

12th, Sunny Gray. This one's, from Mark. Hello there. Pat and Paul. Okay. That sounds like well, the answer's here too, Blue Jays World Series MVP. You can't make it that easy on me, Frank. I know, I messed up. Paul Muller and Pat Borders. I'm in a 12-team points league, and I'm contemplating who to keep Zach Gallant or Sisto-Sanchez. My other keepers are Jose Ramirez, Trevor Story, and Shane Bieber. I thought Gallen was going to be a slam-dunk keeper for me, but with the stud emergence of Sixto, I'm questioning what I should do. Yeah, so I still don't know how much of a strikeout pitcher Sixtho Sanchez is going to be.

I don't have many concerns about whether or not Zach Gallen is going to be this good must-start pitcher for the foreseeable future. So I'd stick with Gallen. This next one is from Daniel. seeing if you have any guys we can pick up in the last week of the season that might have a shot at being a keeper for next year, either a prospect or perhaps someone who got hurt that we have forgotten that we'll be back for next year. Well, I don't know how deep you want to go, how many keepers you keep in your league if you keep entire rosters. But I am putting together a column right now 20 sneaky dynasty pickups with 2021 in mind.

So, like, Jameson Tionne is somebody who got injured that you may have forgotten about, and he might fare much better with the new coaching staff next year. That immediately comes to mind. If it's shallower, then you could say the same thing for Noah Cindergarten and Luis Severino coming back from Tommy John surgery. But I feel like those are on the more obvious side. Yeah, Chris Hale, too, but obvious. Yeah, yeah.

A few others that sit out to me, Scott. Merrill Kelly got hurt. And not that he's like fantastic or anything, but he was pitching well this season. So someone might have dropped him and if you could just keep him for like a last round pick. It might be worth it.

Mike Soroka, you know, I don't know how much time he's going to miss next year. Of course, he has the torn Achilles. Marcus Stroman opted out again, like not a fantastic keeper. So, but he might be like just available somewhere. And then Corey Kluber. I don't know what's left in the tank,

but he also might be available. Domingo Hermann. Sneaky. Yeah, that's sneaky Because he wasn't injured, he was suspended I'm going to throw this out there If you are in a deeper league For relievers who aren't closers

But Circumstances could align That make them closers next year Jordan Romano of the Blue Jays Of course we saw a little in that role this year Josh Stamont of the Royals We've talked about quite a bit Tanner Rainey of the Nationals

I would put in that category And Aaron Bummer Of the White Sox he's hardly pitched this year, but he has closer potential, and Alex Colomé is in the final year of his contract. I don't know what the contract situation is for Brad Hand, but James Carin track is awesome, so he might be the closer at some point as well.

This one's from Steve, 16-te-to-head categories league, five keepers with at least one having to be a pitcher. Jacob de Grombe, Aaron Nola, Tony Gonsolin, Tristan McKenzie, Mike Soroka, and Seth Lugo could all be kept for three years. Jack Flarety could be kept for two years. Batters aren't as strong. J.D. Davis, Michael Brantley.

Gene Seguera. Nick Markakis, L.O.L. Brandon Nimmo could be kept for up to three years. Jose Altuvae for two years. And J.D. Martinez for one. So, Degrom and Nola for three, I think. Even with DeGrom being older, that's a slam dunk.

I think Jack Flaherty for two, for sure. I was leaning Jose Altuvae for two, although I am kind of worried about him. And then I think the last one, either J.D. Martinez for one or Mike Soroka for three. But Soroka's iffy because coming back from an Achilles. Yeah, why not Michael Brandley for three? I guess just because he's getting older.

Yeah. I would probably go Soroka for that fifth spot. I think I agree with your top four. DeGrom, Nola Flaherty, or easy. Altuvae, yeah, okay. Zoroca for three. I mean, coming back from a tough injury, but three years of him,

presuming he bounces back, is a good deal for you. All right. That'll do it. He is Scott White. I am Frank Stanfield. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today

on our YouTube channel. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.