Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Montas to the Yankees & Mancini to the Astros! - Emergency Podcast (8/1 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 1, 2022

Frankie Montas has been traded to the Yankees (1:00)! What does this do for his value? ... Who might pick up saves in the A's bullpen (3:22)? ... Can JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk have value this season (5:15)? ... What is Trey Mancini's value with the Houston Astros (7:40)? Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. We have trades as in multiple. Frankie Montas to the Yankees and Trey Mancini to the Astros. What does it all mean? I don't know. Let's discuss. Welcome in to another emergency edition of fantasy baseball today. On Monday, August 1st, Frank Sample joined again by Scott White.

And let's get into it. Frankie Montas and Lou Trevino were traded to the Yankees in exchange for four prospects, three starting pitchers in Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina, JP Sears, as well as a speedy second base prospect, Cooper Bowman. All four were ranked inside of the top 25 in the Yankees organization, according to MLB pipeline. Seems like a pretty good return, not nearly as crazy as the Luis Castillo return. We'll get to the prospects in just a little bit, but let's just talk about Frankie Montas here, first and foremost. Having a good season, Scott, 3.18 ERA, 1.14 Whib over a strikeout per inning, dealt with some shoulder inflammation

in July, but did make two starts after the All-Star break. What do you think this does for Frankie Montas' value? I think it goes up. I think it goes up quite a bit because, yeah, he's had a great season. Everything about his stat line looks good except for the four and nine record. He goes from one of the worst teams in baseball to arguably the best, certainly the best in the A.L. And, you know, if he had been there from the beginning, he might be nine and four instead. of four and nine, and that would obviously make a big difference to how we perceive Frankie Montas and fantasy. Now, he is going from a pitcher's park in the most pitcher-friendly division, or at least the division with the most pitchers parks,

to a hitter's park in the division with the most hitters parks. And some have expressed concern about that. He does have an ERA over five on the road this year, does Montas. But I think that's kind of a fluky thing. You look at his home away splits last year, pretty much even in terms of ERA. And he's not a fly ball pitcher. He's not like an extreme ground ball pitcher, but he's, he leans more toward ground balls than fly balls. And generally speaking, it's the fly ball guys who are most susceptible to park factors.

So I don't think that's so much to worry about with Montas. I think it's just purely stock up. Yeah, someone tweeted at me that Frankie Montas in his career in Oakland, 3.23 ERA, 4.34 ERA, everywhere else. So again, it is a negative

park shift. There's no doubt about that. For what it's worth, according to Stackass, it's not that big of a park shift. Over the past three seasons, the Yankees ranked 23rd in park factors while the Oakland A's rank 28th. So take that for what it's worth, but overall, more run support

on a better team. I think those things will will slightly help Frankie Montas. He's got to stay healthy as well. Lutrovino comes with a lot of strikeouts. You know, Scott, look, I don't want to be greedy here because I'm happy Montas joins my team, the Yankees, but like,

at the price of also getting Lou Trevino, I'm not very excited about this. Look, the surface level numbers are very bad for Trevino. He does strike out a lot of people. You can drop him if you were rostering him for saves, obviously. But from the A side of things now, who do you think will be next up for save opportunities? AJ Puck and Zach Jackson now who are healthy, and Danny Jimenez started a rehab assignment

this past Friday. So what do you think happens with the A's bullpen? Yeah, I think at some point this week, Jimenez will be back and it'll be his role again. That's how I expected things to go even with Trevino there. If you want to speculate on somebody else, it seemed like AJ Puck. And AJ Puck and Zach Jackson. and have both bailed out Trevino in the past. And I don't know that there's a clear front runner between those two. I think the guy to invest in is Danny Jimenez,

if he's still out there in your league. He is 34% rostered, so could be widely available. I get it. Oakland A's are not very good. But we need saves this time of year. 12 team, 15 team, Roto Categories leagues. I think Danny Jimenez is somebody to target there. The prospects that the A's received in this trade,

it's a pretty good haul, Scott. I know Ken Walde Chalk is someone that you have followed closely. You have him on your Scott White Dynasty team, or at least you did. I think you might have traded him away. I traded him, but I have him on at least one other dynasty team. So let's talk about this hall. Ken Walde Chalk obviously is the headliner. He's a 24-year-old left-handed pitcher this season in the minors.

271-ERA, 1.14 whip, 116 strikeouts over 76 and a third innings. Luis Medina, 23 years old. He's a flamethrower, strong numbers at AA the season. J.P. Sears, a little bit older, 26 years old. We saw him a few starts with the Yankees this season, but he's been great in the minors. 1-67 ERA, 0-7-2 whip over a strikeout per inning. Cooper Bowman, a little bit further away, high A. He was in high A, but low batting average, lots of steals there. Scott, do you think Walde-Chuk and or J.P. Sears can have value this season with the Oakland Aids? Yeah, I do. I suspect J.P. Sears will probably join the rotation

right away in Montas's spot. And it's possible Waldechuk is right there too. They have Adam Oller taking a fifth turn right now for them, and he's not much to get excited about. Ken Waldichuk being 24 years old already. I was kind of surprised the Yankees hadn't already called him up. And he's the most exciting, I would say. He would be clearly a top 100 prospect for me,

and actually when I did my mid-season top 30, I had him as one of 20 honorable mentions. So he'd at least be in the discussion for top 50 for me. And he's kind of a weird prospect in that, you know, if you're just assessing him on pure stuff, you know, the velocity is pretty good, mid-90s fastball. The slider has a lot of sweeping actions, but action.

But I don't think the scouts like his stuff as much as the production. would suggest, but he has a deceptive delivery, you know, kind of a weird arm angle, and that helps the stuff play up. And, you know, you look at the splits between AA and AAA this year, and he's kind of taking a step back at AAA, the walks have gone up a little for Waldichuk,

but I think just the way he's able to fool hitters with that delivery, he has the potential for a lot of strikeouts. So if we see him, I do think we'll see him sooner than later. And even though he'll be pitching for Oakland, he might make himself fantasy relevant. All right. So again,

two names there to pay attention to in deeper leagues. I would say AL only, probably go out and add both of those names right now, Ken Waldichuk and J.P. Sears. But as the season goes along, if Waldichuk does get the call, maybe works his way into standard size formats as well. The other trade that went down here,

Trey Mancini, the Houston Astros. Still waiting for all the details on this trade. It looks like it's going to be a three-team deal where outfielder Jose Siri is going to wind up with the Tampa Bay Rays. Actually, Jeff Passam just tweeted out all of the details of the trade.

So Houston gets Trey Mancini and right-handed pitcher Jaden Murray. Baltimore gets right-handed pitcher Seth Johnson and Chase McDermott. And Tampa Bay does indeed get outfielder Jose Siri. I think the biggest take the way he's got here, obviously, is Trey Mancini this season.

Yeah. He's been solid, 268 batting average, 10 homers, 751 OPS. But this is a great move in terms of park shift and obviously the lineup. So what do you think this does for Mantini? You know, it couldn't be a better park shift really for him. Because remember, the Orioles created that huge, huge, I don't even know what to call it. This enormous left field. They pushed the fence way back and made it one of the hardest parts.

for right-handed hitters to hit it out. Tray Mancini is a right-handed hitter who is especially prolific at pulling the ball in the air. So it was like the worst, the way they tweaked that ballpark was like the worst-case scenario for Tray Mancini and he has only 10 home runs on the year. His expected home runs, according to Stackcast,

if he had played all of his games in Houston where, of course, they have the very short porch in left field, one of the easiest place for a right-handed hitter, places for a right-handed hitter to pull the ball over the fence. The expected home runs, if you played every game there, is 22, versus the 10 that he actually has. Wow. So I'm sure Houston targeted him specifically for that reason.

And, you know, while he's not actually going to play every game in Houston, obviously he's got those road games to play too, I would say stock up for Trey Mancini, and, you know, he could become, he could emerge as a top 40 outfielder with the Astros. We need outfield help, that's for sure. I was just looking at the first base ranks,

and Trey Mancini's 68% rostered could be available in some shallower leagues. How far do you think he moves up here, Scott? Do we into the, I'm just trying to eyeball it, like the Ryan Mountcastle area? Does that make sense for Trey Mancini, maybe even ahead of him? Yeah, that's a close call between those two.

I'm not the biggest Ryan Mountcastle fan. I think I might gamble on Mancini at this point, see how it goes in Houston. It may not go exactly how the numbers say, of course, but I think the Astros are banking on that. All right, and just to put a bow on this conversation, Yule Gariel probably stands to lose the most value, right? You know, I hadn't looked at that yet.

Mancini has played 13 games in the outfield this year, but he's a pretty bad outfielder. Yeah, but I, look, they got, they only have one great out starting outfielder, right? Kyle Tucker and then assuming Jordan Alvarez is at DH. Right now, it looks like they're playing Jake Myers and Chas McCormick both in the outfield. So I would, I would guess they would get bumped to the bench.

One of them would get bumped to the bench before Ulyghuriel does. All right, fair enough. Let's see who's in the lineup today. it is. Obviously, Guriel's still at first base. Chas McCormick in left and Jake Myers in center. Though, okay, I knew we were missing somebody. Michael Brantley is on the IL with a shoulder injury that doesn't sound significant. He's been out a long time, though.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll keep an eye on that, but he could create an issue where maybe Yuli Griel does lose at bats, but, you know, Gurriel's pretty fringy, of course. All right. Well, stock up quite a bit for Trayette. Mancini, we're going to wrap there. We'll see whatever else goes down before the deadline. If Juan Soto or any other big trades happen, of course we'll hop back on here.

But for Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of fantasy baseball today. And we'll be back again later on. Bye-bye.