Fantasy Baseball Today - Must add Chase Silseth & Davis Schneider? Joe Musgrove Injury Updates and More (08/07 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Can Chase Silseth and Davis Schneider be difference makers for your Fantasy Baseball team? Chris Towers and Scott White break it down, with who they would drop for them, including Luis Severino, Brett Baty, and more. Plus, tough injuries to Joe Musgrove, Josh Jung, and Josh Naylor, among other big news from the weekend. Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. It is August 6th.

You're probably listening to this on August 7th. I'm Chris Towers, filling in for Frank Stample with Scott White. Scott, how was your weekend? It was great, Chris. What about yours? I had a busy, Frank and I both went to concerts this weekend. I'm assuming you didn't go to any concerts this weekend. Is that a safe assumption?

That is a safe assumption, yes. Frank is at Metallica tonight. I think he saw them on Friday as well. That's his favorite band, so that makes sense. I went and saw fish, the band, not the sea creatures on Friday. That is not my favorite band. but it was my mom's favorite band. She's seen them 180 times.

I saw them for the second time. It was fine. It was fun. You know, people really like that band. They seen them 180 times apparently. That was fine. So yeah.

That was how my weekend went. And now I'm, you know, filling in for Frank hosting the Sunday show, the toughest show of the week. And I think it'll be fine. Scott, I think it'll be fine.

Can you give me your best impersonation of a baseball game announcer who just witnessed something extraordinary. Perhaps they might say, oh, my goodness gracious. Yeah. Oh, my goodness gracious. That's a specific announcer. Oh, my goodness gracious player of the weekend for you, Scott. Yes.

It is the talk of the weekend as far as I'm concerned. And that is Davis Schneider. Who? Davis Schneider, I said. Now, maybe you haven't heard of Davis Schneider. I wouldn't blame you. I did feature him in one edition of the prospects report a couple months ago. So I was kind of vaguely familiar with him because of that.

And anyone who read it hopefully was too. But this was not a particularly big name prospect in the Blue Jays organization. They called him up. He started all three games of the weekend at second base. And all he did was go nine for 13 with two home runs. Oh, that's all. the first player in major league history to have nine hits and two home runs

in his first three games. Actually, Davis Schneider did. So he made a name for himself, at least in that way, I would say. Now, the follow-up, for our purposes, is Davis Schneider any good? Well, he did put up some good numbers of AAA. He slashed 275, 416, 553.

21 homers and 87 games. His exit velocities at AAA were pretty blah. Not fine. It's like 89 miles per hour, average exit velocity, 95th. Pretty average. Pretty average. High fly ball rate, high pull rate. That is a way to get the most out of modest exit velocities,

as we've seen from countless players over the years. And, you know, I mentioned he reached base at a 416 clip despite hitting 275. He owes that to an 18.4% walk rate versus a 21.9% K rate. So good plate discipline. He showed at AAA along with the ability to pull the ball in the air well and maximize his power that way. He's only 5 foot 9. So it makes sense that, you know, he would have to rely on that sort of trick rather than just muscling up. the ball. He's capable of playing positions other than second base.

Kind of bounced around the infield in the minors. And, you know, it seems like the Blue Jays, like I said, they start them all three games. Even with Whitmerryfield out. Batted third on Sunday. They sent him to the, there you go. So they are loving this guy. I don't think we need to go overboard bidding on him. I put in some modest bids in my rotisserie leagues.

I don't, like I said, getting them in the lineup required them to send Whitmeryfield to the outfield. So I don't know how firm his grip is on that job for starters. And, you know, secondly, if you are putting the ball in the air a lot without much raw power, it's going to lead to some decent share of flyouts. I mean, that's probably why he was hitting 275 at AAA. So what's that going to translate to in the majors? Hard to say exactly, but I would guess less than $2.75. So, yeah, I guess like who should we drop them for?

I don't know. I mean. So here's one. Okay. Josh Young did leave Sunday's game with a fractured left thumb. We don't know how long he's going to be out. They haven't given us a timetable, but it seems reasonable to assume. that this is going to be a pretty lengthy absence. I would be surprised if it was less than a month.

If you need surgery, you're probably looking at close to the end of the season. Unfortunately, Josh Young obviously having a very, very good breakout season. So that comes a really bad timing. Here's one. Would you rather have they play different positions, although they will both likely be second base eligible shortly. Would you rather have Zach Gelloff or David Schneider? Unless you specifically need stolen bases,

I'd rather roll the dice on Schneider at this point. They both do that same trick of maximizing their modest exit velocities for power. But Gelloff's been striking out a ton and it's in a terrible lineup. And I mean, he has been pretty good with the five home runs, five steals already. But I'm just not sold on Gelloff. I think I'd roll the dice on Schneider. Interesting. Okay.

I actually like Gell off quite a bit. His minor league numbers were decent, not as good as Schneider's this season at AAA, but still pretty good. But yeah, it's, he's 10% rostered right now. Should he be rostered in all 12-team Roto leagues? Gelluff?

No, Schneider. Oh, Schneider. Yeah. All 12-team Roto leagues. Probably. Yeah, I would say so with that extra-bill-lots. No, I don't think in points leagues. I think.

I just don't think there's enough lineup spots. to Phil Given. And there are just so many other more attractive hitters out there that I, it'd take a while to go down the list before I got to Schneider. All right. Most rostered third baseman or most added third baseman are Luis Renhifa. Would you rather have Schneider or Renhifa? Schneider.

Would you rather have Jamer Candelario is much more highly rostered? He's 85%. You'd rather have him, right? Yeah, of course. What about Jake Berger? He's up 9% to 56%. Yeah, I would say Burger. What about would you drop Alec Bohm, who had a home run this weekend, but overall it's just kind of a guy.

Well, he's been great for the last two months, at least in terms of batting average. So, no, I can't, I can't see myself swapping out Boehm for Schneider. But like a JD Davis, you know, his roster rate's probably up near 50% still. Like, that seems like an easy swap to make. How about this one? Another guy who got the call made his first major league start on Friday. Curtis Meade. Tampa Bay raised prospect, pretty big deal.

Started two or three games, came into one as a pinch hitter. Went one for 10, but he was hitting 291 with a 379 OBP, 453 slugging percentage at AAA. He's a big deal. Big prospect. Would you rather have him or David Schneider? See, I don't think the raise actually respect how big of a prospect Curtis Mead is, Given the way they've handled Jonathan Aranda this year, I mean, Meads, by most rankings, is an even better prospect. He hasn't been nearly as productive at AAA this year's Aranda has, the power numbers especially.

I just haven't been there. I know he's, I forget exactly what his injury was, but I think it was some kind of upper body injury. And he hasn't been heading for power down there. But getting back to my original point, I don't think the raise respect Curtis Mead's prospect status. and they're the raise. And they're the raise. So is he going to get sent down tomorrow? Was he just up for a three-day span where they were facing two lefties?

I kind of suspect that's the case. And even if he does stay up longer, they're infields full, right? I mean, he's not getting the majority of bats at third, second, or first. And obviously not shortstop. He doesn't play shortstop. So, yeah, I would rather, I would rather roll. the dice on Schneider over Mead, even though, you know, like if we're talking, who's the better dynasty asset, obviously Mead.

All right. That's David Schneider. We all just learned who he was a couple of days ago, except for Scott who knew about him a couple weeks ago. I got probably longer than that. Let's move on to my, oh, my goodness, gracious player of the weekend. And that was Chase Silseth, who has double-digit strikeouts in two of three starts since coming back from AAA after striking out 12.

Mariners on Sunday over seven innings allowed two run runs, four hits, one walk. He is 14% rostered, had eight swinging strikes with the slider, 12 with the splitter, only through the four-seem fastball, 24% of the time, had about 11% sinkers. So it was a very, very heavy secondary. This is a guy who was the first player from last year's draft class to make his major league debut. He's got 26 strikeouts and 17 and 2 thirds innings over the past three starts. coming back from AAA, he's got to stick in the rotation moving forward, right,

given how good he's been. That's been a question, but there's no way they can pull him out. This is a team that's absolutely desperate to win games. They've lost six in a row, including this one. He's got to stick in the rotation, right? I mean, I would say so. And it's, you know, he had that first game, kind of his breakthrough start where he struck out 10 and five innings.

And we all thought, all he's, it's great, good for him. but then they just acquired Lucas Golito right after that. And so we thought, okay, Silseth has to be the odd man out. And it was only after this scoring period started that we found out Griffin Canning's hurt. And so Silseth is going to make two starts this week. I say that with particular disappointment because I have him in an AL-only league, didn't get to enjoy this week where he put together two great starts, including this absolute gym on Sunday.

So this three-star stretch for SELF Seth started with him taking about a mile per hour and a half off his slider. And it's sort of like we saw with Reed Detmer's for a stretch there. It became like this wipeout pitch for him at that reduced velocity. And he started racking up swinging strikes with it, racking up strikeouts in general. So this is the third start during that stretch. Obviously, he incorporated a splitter in this one. and then he hadn't really been using prior to that. And it was responsible, actually, for the majority of the whiffs.

It was responsible for 12 of the 21. Entering this start, it was his fifth most used pitch. It was his second most used pitch in this start, twice as often as normal. So, I mean, if I was already pretty excited about Silseth before that development, before he's like, hey, guys, I have this pitch that's even better. and now if he's able to combine that with that improved slider,

you know, yeah, I think we're even, I don't even think that's the most pertinent question anymore. Does Silseth get to keep a job? Like, well, obviously he's going to stick in the rotation after this three-starred span. It's just how invested should we be in him in fantasy? And I can't think of a start. There's no other way of our pitcher this weekend that even comes close to him, right? I wouldn't think so.

I mean, the other top options, we'll talk about them a few minutes, but like Kyle Gibson, he's already 79% rostered. He had a great start. Graham Ashcraft continues to be surprisingly good. Nick Povetta, Stephen Matt, Johan Oviedo. I mean, if any of those guys are available and Chase Silsett's available, you're adding Chase Silseth, right? Yeah, I would say so.

Yep. Now, if you play in the 19% of leagues where Yuri Perez is also available, you're adding Yuri Perez over Chase Seltz, right? Yuri Perez is expected rejoin the Marlins rotation on Monday. Yes. Yes, I would add him. Like you said, he's remained rostered in the vast majority of CBS sports leagues throughout, which makes sense.

I would have recommended people doing that. He's probably more available in Yahoo Leagues, for instance. So if he is out there, go grab him. his second start, his second buildup start, how long did he end up going? I think it was like 60 pitches. It was only like three and a third,

I think, maybe less, but a bunch of strikeouts. So presumably, oh, I actually need to update the two-star pitcher rankings with us. Presumably he's in line for two starts

if he's coming up to stay. I think so, yeah. I think the Marlins have one off day this week. So you don't, factoring that in, I'm not sweating so much. Oh, he might only go four innings since first start.

You know, because between the two starts, he'll probably give you nine innings with, I mean, if he picks up where he left off, great ratios. It does look like he gave up, what, three runs and three in a third in his second buildup start, but also struck out seven.

So, yeah, I think I'd get, like, it's good timing that Yuri Perez he comes back and he lines up for two starts right away. That makes it easy to say, okay, go ahead and get it back in your lineup. And yeah, absentee versus the Yankees two teams that at least right now over the last month or so don't look like particularly tough matchups. Right. So, yeah, I think not just not just picking them up, picking up those without saying picking them up over starting anyone else.

Yeah, I think you're like Perez as somebody I'd be excited to start in his first couple turns back here since they're happening in the same week. But if. if Yuri Perez isn't available. Chase Selseth is the top waiver wire pitcher. Again, 26, 20, let me find it, 27 strikeouts, 26 strikeouts over 17 and 2 thirds. Endings over three starts since coming back from AAA. I've got this a little later in the show,

but let's just talk about it. I've got, looks like six pitchers that I wanted to ask you if we can drop. So we'll just do it in the context of Chase Seltz is available in pretty much all leagues. 85% available. drop Jose Arkiti for him. He came back from the IL, gave up five earned runs and three and a third against the Yankees. It's been pretty terrible when he's pitched this year.

Yeah, fair enough. But I do think he has the potential to be a very globy pitcher. And I say that in a good way. Like I think Arkiti, especially given a supporting cast, how efficient he is, I do think he has some good starts in him down the stretch. So I don't want to just say, oh, yeah, drop him for Silseth and make people think we should be out on Erkidi altogether. I don't feel that way just because his return didn't go so great. But yes, I would drop him for Silseth.

What about Bryce Elder? You have up five earned runs and four in a third innings. He's got a 660 ERA and a 157 whip since July 1st. I mean, he is definitively part of the glob. His two starts prior to this one, it's worth. pointing out were good, but a combined five strikeouts between them. So he's had some ups and downs here recently, as any globy pitcher would. Drop them for Silseth.

It's easier to say yes in a Roto league, I think, in a head-to-head, than in a head-to-head league where Elder pretty reliably goes six innings and has one of the best offenses in baseball backing him. You need the volume, you need the wins, especially. Silseth not going to have two starts. That's just not going to happen in the Angels rotation. It might happen once all season. Yeah. So I'm going to straddle defense there and say,

you know what? I don't think I'd do it for Elder, period. Would you do it for Elder? You've been... I would. I've been expecting a straight stretch like this for Bryce Elder, so I'm not surprised. ERA overall is still pretty good.

It's like mid-3s, but I think it's... If it went a run higher before the end of the season, I wouldn't necessarily be surprised. Would you drop, I think this is, this is an obvious one. Would you drop Luis Severino for me? For you?

For me. At least I won't hurt your ratios. At least I won't pitch in Major League Baseball and give up, you know, nine runs. Yeah. No, I get where you're, I get what you're, I'm picking up what you're putting down there. And I would drop.

of Reno for just about anybody, yes. Would you drop Kyle Hendricks, who gave up seven earned runs and four innings? Had been pitching pretty well, and it was his Braves, obviously, so you don't want to hold that too much against him, but we know there's not a ton of upside with Kyle Hendricks. Would you drop him for Chase Silseth?

Yeah, I would. Christopher Sanchez has been really good for most of the season, gave up six earned runs against the Royals this weekend. Would you drop him for Chase Silseth? Another guy, while the upside's not super high. Right. And I mean, we don't even really know his career has been so sure.

We don't really know what Christopher Sanchez is. And I think most of us were thinking he would be out with the acquisition of Michael Lorenzen. They decided to go six-man for now. Lorenzen's first start obviously went great for the Phillies. It's hard to sustain a six-man rotation for long. And I don't think, you know, it's not like that. like the Phillies rotation is full of a bunch of young guys whose innings are beginning to pile up.

So there's no need for them to do that. Christopher Sanchez is the young guy. So every bad start he has, he makes it easier for them to drop back to a five-man rotation. And so I think he just had such a narrow margin for error that it's fine to move on from him after this start. All right. Two more.

And again, for the most part, you know, these are relatively widely rostered guys. This is another guy. This is one guy, you and I both really like the talent of, but Reed Detmer's, velocity was down across the board. He's only gone more than five innings once in four starts since the All Star break. He gave up seven earned runs and four innings, nine hits, two walks, four strikeouts versus the Mariners. Obviously, you and I love Red Dempers upside. And if he went on a run over the rest of the season where he was a sub three ERA and 10Ks per nine, I don't think either of us would be surprised. But would you drop his

teammate, would you drop him for his teammate Chase Silseth? I mean, he's Silseth is kind of doing what we want Redemers to do. And so I think I'm okay with that. I think

I think I have more trust in Silseth at this point, which is a difficult word to use for a guy who's had three stars to put him on our radar, but like we're not clinging to that much more with redempt.

So I think that's fine. And look, the one thing I will say about this Chess Chiltsch start and look, if Chase Silseth has a 5 ERA the rest of the season, I also would not be surprised. Sure. But we are at a point in the season. Trades are done. Not a lot of incentive for guys to get called up. There have not been that many exciting waiver wire pitchers over the past month or so. It's been pretty hard to find.

certainly have there been any guys with two double-digit strikeout starts and a three-start stretch? I can't think of any who are widely available. So that's what we're getting excited about here with Chase Seltz. One more. I think this guy's pretty much a drop across the board. Michael Kopeck, would you drop him for Chase Seltz? He's about 65% roster still. I mean, he's kind of in the same category as Luis Severino where it's just, it's just,

I can't imagine what it would take to get him in my lineup again. Yeah, 15 strikeouts, 14 walks over his past four starts for Michael Copac. He had that really nice run. I think it was like towards the end of May, early June. But overall this season, it's been a very, very tough season for Michael Copac. So totally fine dropping him. And let's move on. Let's move on to some of the big injuries from this weekend.

But that covered my Waverwire Cut pitchers segment. So we got that one out of the way. Yeah. Big injuries this weekend, Joe Musker, have diagnosed with inflammation in his right shoulder capsule shut down at least three weeks. And you start doing the math, shut down for three weeks. Let's say best case scenario he's cleared to throw in three weeks. You're probably looking at three more weeks before he's able to pitch in a major league game at minimum.

There's only like seven weeks left in the season. if you don't have an IL spot are you dropping Joe Musgrove for Chase Silseth this whole show is going to become the Chase Silseth show Yeah we're changing the we're changing the name to Chase Silseth today I mean look if if yeah if if you're if it's a scenario where you can't stash Musgrove on an I in an IL spot and you don't have anyone more obvious to drop then I think that's

fine. We're mostly speaking to the NFBC audience, I feel like, with that, but which is relatively small. I mean, there are probably some private leagues that have no IAL spots. That might be fine. I am in a spot in my NFBC leagues, which 15-team Roto, they tend to be, where I need, I basically, the categories I need most, their starting pitcher. category. So I'm scooping up every Kyle Wright, Nicodolo.

Yeah. Just hoping you get any kind of boost at the end, right? Yeah. So I'm kind of, I'm kind of in the opposite place with the way my teams have been constructed where other people are like, yeah, I don't want to wait around for them. And I'm like, okay, I'll pick them up and keep my fingers crossed. So I don't see myself personally dropping Joe Musgrove, but I think it's defensible. Yeah, tough injury there. Also a tough injury in Cleveland with Josh Naler out three to six weeks of the right oblique strain. That's another one where, hey, if it comes back on the three week, you know, if he's out the three weeks and he comes back and, you know, by that point, minor league season will be close to over.

Maybe he doesn't go on a rehab assignment. You see that sometimes at the end of the season. Maybe we could get Josh Nailer back for the end of the season. But just a tough, tough injury for him. Is there anybody in Cleveland's organization or roster that? that you have any interest in. Kyle Monzardo? Yeah, Cal Monzardo, but he's not 100% right now, yeah.

Yeah, that's true. He's hurt. So that takes that off the table. No, no, not really. They did call up Ryan Rockio, I think before this injury even happened to Naylor, because they cleared shortstop with Ahmed Rosario being traded to the Dodgers. And he is a prospect of note.

But I think a much better real-life prospect than fantasy prospect. His offensive skill set is mostly contact-oriented. Let's see. Did Cole Calhoun start there today? Is that who got the start? Coal-Cahun did get added to the roster. I did not see if he started today. He did start at first base for the guardians.

Cole Cahoon, starting first baseman for your Cleveland Guardians. Age 35, it's been a couple years since he's been fan-dust. is irrelevant. I can't say I'm particularly interested in that. But if he went on a heater, it wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world either. Yeah, it's been a,

he went on a season long heater in 2020. Now, it was a two-month season, but he did have 14 homers. Yeah. In 60 games in 2020 was actually one of the best outfielders in fantasy, but yeah, not, not super excited for the Colhout Calhoun

experience. I think if you're digging that deep, at first base. Probably the Anthony Rizzo replacement Jake Bowers is the better piggy. He over to half times over the weekend. Yeah, that was the one I was going to ask. I mean, I still think we're talking about really deep roto leagues in that scenario.

Yeah, 32% strikeout rate. He does have an 810 OPS, but he's hitting 230. It's very all or nothing. But yeah, Anthony Rizzo, I mean, I guess Anthony Rizzo could be back relatively soon, but I don't know if you guys saw this, but he had a collision at first base with Fernando Tatis back at the end of May. You remember, Anthony Rezo got off to an awesome start this season.

He was actually looking like prime Anthony Rizzo. It wasn't like last year. It was like super empty home runs. He was hitting for batting average. It seemed like the shift man had really helped him. Had that collision at first base with Fernando Tatis and just was a disaster from that point on. And turns out. From that point on.

Yeah, it turns out he had concussion symptoms after that that he either didn't tell the team about or whatever the situation was. That's one of the things about concussions is you kind of have to, if you're not testing guys regularly, you kind of have to rely on players giving you that information that they're struggling with it. Some guys aren't going to be willing to do that. So it seems like that's what happened with Anthony Rizzo. He tried to push through it. we had a couple stories like that on the same day. We got into this a little bit on Friday's podcast,

but with Anthony Rizzo and Joe Ryan in his groin injury. In fact, it was having on his delivery, another situation of a guy playing through injury where he just wasn't, he didn't inform the team really what was going on with him, or the team didn't take it seriously as they should or whatever. Yeah, I mean, Ryan took the heat for that one. He said it was on him, yeah.

Rizzo, it's a little if-year who's to blame there. But no, I mean, that just goes to show you that when a player is struggling, when all his numbers have turned sour, and it's reflected just as much in the advanced status of the surface level ones, it may not actually mean that he's broken. In fact, it probably doesn't. And we don't always hear about the cases like with Rizzo and Ryan. That's the point I forgot.

to make Friday is that, okay, we heard about these, and so it's easy to say, okay, these guys will probably be fine. But a lot of times we never hear about it and just eventually the player writes himself. And so we don't. So does finger injury. There is a tendency with advanced stats to, they allow us to pretend like we know more than we actually do. And there's a danger in that because there are a lot of times just as much the symptom.

as the cause. And we're, you know, too often treat them as the cause. Yep. Other injury, we mentioned earlier, Josh Young suffered a fractured left thumb, trying to catch a Jorge Soler's line drive, 108 miles an hour off the bat.

Ended up being a double play. One of the, one of the dumber ways that the Marlins have had a double play this season. Who do we think plays third base for the Rangers moving forward? Well, entering the game, actually to play shortstop because I think Corey Seeger had the day off was

Ezekiel Duran and he had been losing at bats recently. He's been terrible since the All-Star break entered today 8 for 55 since the All-Star break. A 146 batting average for Ezekiel Duran. You go to his

stat-cast page the numbers have gone down some in terms of the expected stats, the exit velocities, but it's still very good. It's still a starting caliber play. or so. I do think he'll pull out of this lump. And presumably,

Young's injury is what gets him back in the lineup. And the Rangers lineup is a good place to be. Everybody, everybody up and down the lineup. Great running RBI production. I don't know how available. I imagine Duran's become kind of available again, since as much as he struggled.

What's his roster rate? Let's see here, 64%. Yeah. So it never got as high as it should have. Yeah. Was part of the problem. Eligible of shortstop in outfield in addition to third base. I think it should be rostered higher than that.

I think so too. Yeah. I think that's a prime waiver wire pickup. That is somebody who I would pick up over Davis Schneider, for instance, if we want to play that game again. The Rangers are calling up Jonathan Ornellis from AAA, where he's hitting 250 with a 708 OPS. Did have some interesting numbers last season,

299 average 785 OPS, 14 homers, 14 stolen bases, but not necessarily someone that we expect to play every day for the Rangers or are particularly excited about, right, for fantasy? I would say so, unless he goes all Davis Schneider on us. And then there's probably no chance that this leads to Evan Carter getting called up, right?

Their top prospect. He's a center fielder, but maybe they stick him in a D8 spot. Probably not going to happen. Just wanted to mention it, right? Yeah, I would imagine not. The thought of Justin Foske, their first round pick, I believe, in 2020, did cross my mind. But I just, I don't think the playing time would be there. I don't, unless they've totally soured on Ezekiel de Ron, which would be kind of nutty.

All right. That's going to be there. We'll move on. I saw some people in the chat. commenting that they would drop Chase Silsith for Carlos Rodan. Do you want to caution he had another tough start? I thought he actually looked pretty good today when I was watching the start. Left it with a hamstring injury on this left hamstring.

We'll have an MRI on Monday. Not sure the extent of that injury. But let's find out what it is before we drop him because Carlos Rodan is obviously when right one of the best pitchers in baseball. You don't want to be too hasty with him. I know you're frustrated. It has been a frustrating season for Carlos Rodon. let's just let's chill for now.

I would not drop him for Chase Selseth. Would you? No, it's probably extra frustrating because it was two starts this week, so everybody got him in their lineup. And it did not go well. I mean, unless we find out he has a timetable like Joe Musgrove. Yeah. You know, we could think about it in that case.

But I agree. Based on what we know now, not going to make that swap. Yeah, they just got Nestor Cortez back. The Yankees did. So, I mean, I guess it could be worse timing. At least they have another healthy. starting pitcher, although, you know, Louis Severino, I don't know if he really counts at this point as a healthy starting pitcher. He's technically healthy. Does Yanni Brito get another chance in this rotation? Do they give Randy Vasquez a look? How do you think they would fill this rotation spot? And is there anyone worth getting interested in any way?

I mean, if they turned to either of those guys again, no. No. No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be speculating on that. I mean, obviously, they had another rotation spot open up with Domingo Hermann. That's what Cortez filled. So, yeah, the cupboards pretty bare there. I was excited about what Nestor Cortez did, though. Yes. Because. Eight strikeouts and four innings, right?

Right. Yeah, eight strikeouts and four innings. Obviously, a short start, fresh off the IL. Only one hit allowed to the Astros in those four innings. 17 swinging strikes on just 64. pitches. Average exit velocity, 77.4. I mean, there basically was nothing in the, nothing to, everything was encouraging. Everything you could point to from this first start, except the fact he went only four innings was encouraging for Cortez. Velocity on his fastball and cutter, top two pitches, both up a mile per hour and a half. And hopefully he's going to come back and finish out the year strong because he was pretty disappointing before he went on the aisle with a strained rotator cuff. which, you know, they've had something to do with the disappointment. Underlying numbers were better than the surface level numbers, 365, expected ERA, strikeout rate, walk rate.

They were both 1.3 miles per, 1.3 percentage points in the wrong direction from last season, but still very good. So I do think Nester Cortez, if he's healthy, should be pretty good moving forward. And a couple other injuries from this weekend, Jake Freely, with a stress fracture in one of the toes. on his left foot. Byron Buxton with a right hamstring strain shut down for two weeks. We are going to take a quick break. And when we're back, we'll go over some news and notes and some of the other standouts from this weekend.

All right. News and notes, Shohei Otani is expected to make his next pitching start, which is scheduled for Wednesday against the Giants. He exited his previous start with cramping in his right hand. He has exited like four games in the last week and a half with cramping. The Angels have lost six straight games. they made all those trades.

Nobody's been good so far. Their pets' heads are falling off. It's been kind of a mess. Hopefully, Shohe Otani is fine moving forward. Are you starting him this week as a starting pitcher? Well, if it's... Two different questions, I guess, yes. Yeah.

If you have him as both and you have to decide, you're starting him as a hitter. I think that kind of goes without saying. Yes. If you just have him as a starting pitcher, is he in the starting class? I would start him. Yes.

All right. McClanahan will meet with a team of specialists including, and this was an ominous name to see Dr. Neil Eletrache for a second opinion on his forearm tightness. That is one of the two guys whose names you tend to hear when guys have Tommy John surgery. That does not mean Shane McClanahan is going to have Tommy John surgery. It just means that Dr. Neil Eletrache has experience with Tommy John surgery. I'm not saying anything more than that. Let's hope it doesn't become anything more than that. I'm very, very worried.

I don't think any of us are optimistic. It doesn't seem like a situation to be optimistic about. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic. Tyler Glass now was scratched from his start Sunday due to back spasms. However, the rays are optimistic. He'll start this week versus the Cardinals. Take the chance and start him this week. I think in most cases, yeah.

All right. Cedric Mullins was scheduled to play in rehab assignments at AA on Sunday and Saturday. So he looks like he'll be back relatively soon from that groin injury. Nathan Avaldi said Saturday he is pain free after playing catch from 75 feet. Bruce Bochie said that Yvaldi will be out another two to three weeks with his forearm strain. You know, you're holding on him. But, you know, hopefully it's more like two weeks than three weeks, given how few weeks we have. have left.

Jonathan, India is expected to be activated Tuesday against the Marlins. Do we expect him to be an everyday player?

And does this mean Christian Encarnacian Strand's time in the lineup is done? Well, incarnatian strands arrived

didn't coincide with India getting hurts. It was a struggle to get everybody in the lineup every day. And I'm guessing

that's what it'll become again. However, India was as consistent as a starter as anybody that they have. So, yeah, I think,

I think it's fine to, I think it's fine to treat India like a starter and fantasy again. I don't know exactly how the playing time's going to shake out. I think it'll, I'll think they'll have to be creative with it. Between the two, I'd be more likely to start India and fantasy than in Carnacian Strand just because we haven't

gotten a lot of production from Incarnausian Strand yet, though, you know, he's looked fine. The strikeouts. 10 with four strikeouts this weekend, down to 254 overall. 22% strikeout rate, that's actually not too bad, but 3% walk rate,

you know, maybe. It's not going to walk much. A little bit of a free swinger, uh, so far. Would you drop him for Davis Schneider? Christian and Carnacian,

I don't think so. No, I think, if you're asking me to bet on who has more home runs from today to the end of the season. I'm going to say in Carnacian Strand. All right. Trevor's story will stay on his rehab assignment through Wednesday. He's eligible or he has to come off his rehab assignment by Thursday. Red Sox wanted to keep him down

there so he can continue working on his conditioning. He's been very good in his rehab assignment slugging 595, hitting 270. What are your expectations for Trevor story the rest of the way? well look they have to call him up soon because he's running out of days yeah Thursday yeah unless there's some setback but yeah you have 20 days once you start a rehab assignment he is bumping right up against that and he's 79% rostered so not available in most leagues

you know one of the one day last week frank and I were talking about how how he he first we first started hearing about these elbow troubles the same year that he saw his batting average take a tumble, which was his last year in Colorado. Yeah, his last season. And the power and speed numbers were still fine. It seemed like maybe it was declined.

But even now he's, what, 30? It would have been a premature decline if it was a legitimate decline. So I think there's a chance that Trevor's story comes back. It wasn't a full-blown Tommy John. It was the internal bracing procedure. Yep. others like Reese Hoskins have had, and he looked fine after having it.

So I think there's a chance Trevor Story comes back and is as good as we've seen in several years. That's not the one you should, that's not the scenario you should bet on necessarily, but it is a possibility. And if you are in a league where he's available, any of the 21% of leagues on CBS where he's available, I think he's absolutely. worth picking up. And look, last year, I mean, it was a disappointment. He hit 238, 737 OPS. It was still a 25 home or 20 steel pace for Trevor Story. Like that's still a very useful player, especially in a Roto League where if, you know,

worst case scenario, you stick him in a middle infield spot. But that's still a guy who, you know, very easily could be a, you know, a top 10 second basement. Before, before we knew he. was having this elbow procedure. Like when my initial rankings came out in November or whatever it was. Story was fifth at my second base rankings.

Now, second base looked pretty weak at that point, but even so. All right. Some of the other news, Michael Grove placed on the 15-day IL with right lat tightness. Clayton Kershaw should return from the IL sometime this week. You threw another bullpen session on Sunday.

Would you start Clayton Kershaw this week? I think I'd rather see how that goes. I think that's the right call. He's coming back from a shoulder issue and has only really thrown bullpen sessions. So we just don't know what he's looked like. Michael Waka made a rehab start at AAA on Saturday. His first live action since July 1st. He's going to need at least one more start dealing with right shoulder inflammation.

Ryan Helsley started a rehab assignment at Double I Sunday. He's been on the IL since mid-June with a right forearm strain. Is he just the call? closer when he's back? I missed who you said, sorry. Ryan Healthy. I would guess so. Yeah, I would guess so.

I mean, it may be to the same extent that he was the closer before he went down, which was, you know, splitting save chances 50-50 with Giovanni Gallegos because a lot of times they used Ryan Heelsley in the highest leverage spot, regardless of whether it was a safe chance. but Hellsley is certainly the Cardinals reliever most worth rostering even while presently on the I. All right. Here's a confusing one to follow that up with. Ryan Presley didn't pitch Sunday because he's sore. They didn't give any explanation for what that meant.

Dusty Baker said he's healthy, so it doesn't sound like much to be concerned about. Brian and Bray, you got the save on Sunday. Mason Miller threw a bullpen session Saturday. We'll face live hitters this week. That includes Ryan Noda, who's going to begin his return. Hunter Green allowed one run over two and two-thirds innings in a rehab start. And I noticed Doug Gray of Red Minor Leagues.com noted that his pitch mix looks a little different.

He was throwing a fourth off-speed or a, I guess a third off-speed pitch, a fourth pitch. It wasn't really clear what the categorization was under statcast, but that's something that Hunter Green talked about in an article on Cincinnati.com that I saw this week, that he's taken the time away from pitching to focus on his repertoire. and hopefully, you know, take another step forward we've been looking for, you know, that third pitch, the change up or, you know, whatever, might be a splitter, not sure exactly what it is, but that's something to keep an eye on with Hunter Green because we know how high the upside is. Tanner Halk started a rehab assignment at AAA Saturday and will be stretched out

to return as a starter for the Red Sox. He's 13% rostered. Is he someone you should stash if you don't have an IL spot? No, I would say not. He, there were some encouraging signs for him before he went on the IL before he had the facial fracture. All right. J.P. France was removed to the move to the bullpen with Jose Arkiti returning Sunday. Routy to Les will begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. Sorry, Scott, did you want to say something else? No, it's fine. Okay. Luis Arrias was in the, Larissa Rias was in the lineup for the Red Sox Friday, batting eighth playing second base, probably a short-term thing with Trevor Story coming back. any interest at all in deeper leagues

I mean how deep do you want to say an AL only deeper than shallower than AL only no okay Emmishihan was option to AAA Friday Cole Hamill's officially retired after 15 seasons

heck of a career there for Cole Hamill's I don't think quite Hall of Fame caliber but you know I think he's like that argument yeah right on the right on the bubble. I think he'll be a fun one to argue about Royce Lewis with his oblique injury took live batting practice on Sunday as he works his way back. Jay Martinez was back in the lineup on

Saturday and Sunday. Likely won't play on Monday, but it doesn't sound like he's had a setback. It's just maintenance. That'll probably continue moving forward. Chris Sale struck out seven over four and one third innings at AAA in his rehab assignment appearance. His velocity was down about two miles per hour from what I saw. So it's a little concerning, but certainly still worth stashing, correct? Yeah, I'd gamble on him at most any velocity. There's been a lot of fluctuation over his career. All right. Alex Kirolov had a cortisone injection and is still resting from that shoulder injury. Anthony Descalfani had a PRP injection. His elbow will be shut down for six to eight weeks, likely ending his season. The White Sox claimed Brent Honeywell on waivers. Any chance he gets a chance

to start over the final two months? I mean, their rotation is so depleted. I'm not going to say no, but I don't know that I care either. Sure. All right, Alex Verdugo was scratched for disciplinary reasons on Saturday, but he was back in the lineup on Sunday. Sounds like that was just a one-day thing.

Spencer Turnbull pitched three and a third innings in a rehab, start Friday at AAA. Any interest there at all coming back from a neck injury? No. No. I've always been bullish or turn bullish. Except it's the opposite. Esther Rie's returned from the IL Saturday from his shoulder injury.

And the A's designated Ramon Luriano for assignment. Some others who went on the IL, Brandon Marsh with a bruised knee ran into the outfield wall in center field. A little reminiscent of Aaron Rowan, like kind of the same part of the park just didn't hit his face, which I guess is thankful. And then Zach Nato with lower back discomfort that's been bothering him for a while. Would you start, we talked about it earlier, Tyler Glass now, would you start him?

Yeah. You said yes. Okay. Yeah. Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson. Now, this is an interesting one. We didn't talk about it yet, but I'm sure if you're a baseball fan, you've seen it by now. They had a little brawl, actually a pretty big brawl by baseball player standards.

They exchanged punches. They landed punches. I would say both of them seemed to land punches. Jose Ramirez knocked Tim Anderson down. They're likely facing some discipline for their fight. Tim Anderson was out of the lineup on Sunday. Not clear if that was a disciplinary issue or just a day off, but would you start them this week?

Obviously, different calibers of player there between Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson. So no to Tim Anderson because he hasn't really been good. good enough to start anyway. Jose Ramirez probably, yes, I haven't heard of a timeline. You know, I presume whatever suspension he gets, he'll appeal it. Yep. But, you know, he could drop the appeal at any point and then be forced to sit from that day forward. We just, if he does appeal it, I have no idea when the hearing would be.

And, you know, if he were to drop his appeal, obviously, I have no way of predicting that. So I'd go ahead and star Jose Ramirez. He's too high end. All right. Max Muncie has missed three games in a row since being hit on the wrist with a pitch. Would you start him this week? I'd rather not. In one catcher league,

you could probably play it safe instead of. Sorry, that was Max Muncie, not. Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking ahead to Salvador Perez. Salvador Perez.

Yeah, I would try to sit Max Muncie too after sitting, considering you missed three games, sure. And Salvador Perez, like I said, in one catcher league, you could probably find a,

a way to sit him. All right. Let's move on to some of the other waiver wire pitchers from this weekend. Kyle Gibson, very good start versus the Mets, nine strikeouts, one walk. He's only available in 21% of Rock leagues. Do you think he's a high priority ad in the leagues where he's available, Kyle Gibson? He's very gloppy. Okay.

Four straight quality starts, 27 strikeouts, five walks and 25 innings in that span. Would you rather have him or Graham Ashcraft, who now has seven quality starts in a row, after going eight innings, giving up three earned runs, two walks, five strikeouts this weekend. I have no idea how this is how he's doing this still. The strikeout numbers still not very good. The walk number is still not great. What do we make a Graham Ashcraft? 5.9K per 9, 3.1 walks per 9, despite having a 205 ER in his last seven starts.

No, I would rather have Kyle Gibson. And I don't want to go anywhere near Graham Ashcraft, really. Would you rather have Graham Ashcraft or Nick Povetta? who didn't have a great appearance this weekend, four innings, three earned runs, two walks, two strikeouts versus Toronto. He's 64% rostered. But remember, 45 strikeouts,

251 ERA in 32 and a third inning since July 1st, doesn't start. Will occasionally just be used for a one inning or two inning outing rather than these piggyback outings that he's done. I really don't know how to value him. It's also Nick McVeigh who has had very interesting stretches in his career. And then, typically falls apart.

His previous outing was a true start. The one where he went seven and a third and struck out 10. His second longest outing during this stretch, he went six no-hit innings and struck out 13. So I wish they'd give him more leash because he seems to do well with it. And it wasn't like, it wasn't a horrible outing this time.

It's just, you know, if you're only going four innings in order for it to be a value in fantasy, it has to be like a lights out four innings, you know? I would rather have him than Ashcraft. Was that the comparison, Pavetta, or Ashcraft? And in fact, I went ahead. I update my sleeper pitchers that come out Friday.

I update them on Sunday. And I left Pavetta in there. He's still lined up to get a turn against the Royals this week, whether it's a true start or following an opener. So hopefully that ends up being, a lights out performance against that offense. All right. Would you rather have,

let's just compare these three. Nick Povetta, Stephen Mats, or Johan Oviedo? So I prefer Povetta. I think there's the best chance of him becoming becoming somebody usable in any league. Povetta,

then followed by Mats, followed by Oviedo. Yohan Oviedo, you've used the term random number generator a lot over the past couple of weeks in our pitching discussions. this guy might be the absolute definition of a random number generator this season.

He has eight starts with six innings and one earn run or less. He has another three with six innings and two earn runs or less. He has no other quality starts in his other 11 starts. It's like it's either a gem with like legitimate 10 strikeout upside.

I think he's done that three times this season or it's just not worth using. And there doesn't seem. to be much rhyme or reason for it. Right. That's the thing is, okay, so in his last five starts, Oviedo has a 232ERA. 0.94 whip nearly a strikeout per inning. Four of the five of them have been absolutely great, including the start over the weekend

against the Tigers, right? The other one was a disaster. Okay, so you could say he's the hot hand now, but I don't see any reason for it, as you were saying, no rhyme or reason. Like early in the year when he was having some good starts, it's like, look, the sliders up three miles per hour. But, you know, things leveled off from there, and they haven't really changed in an observable way here during this impressive stretch.

So I just don't know how to put any faith in Oviedo. It feels like you're really risking just a total meltdown if you put them in your lineup. Matt's has been impressive of late, too. Yes, 20 strikeouts, 0.7. an eight ERA over the last four starts. It's brought his ERA, overall ERA, down to close...

It's brought his overall ERA down to 394, and all the ERA estimators are basically in line with that. Not that that's a great ERA, but... It's useful. I feel like... I feel like Matt's is pitching well in a way we understand from Stephen Mats, I guess, is how I'd put it.

And his matchup, This week is also the Royals. So that makes him. He actually got added to my sleeper pitchers for this week article. When I removed, do I remove? Can't remember who I removed. But Stephen Matt's joined the group of 10. All right.

And then relative to that group, is Jose Cantana clearly at the bottom? Or where would you put him? 6Ks, two walks versus Baltimore, 32% rostered. Six innings this week are in this start. 342 ERA. 16 strikeouts, 342 XER. 342 ERA, 475XERA, 0 and 3, which the Mets are going to lose a lot of games the rest of the way.

So where would you rank him among those previous three? Between Povetta, Mats, and Oviedo, Jose Cantana, is most like Mats, I would say. I do like that three of his four starts since coming back from the IL six innings or more. I think that's a good sign for him. I think he is part of, I think I trust him to be part of the glob at this point,

which means you can play matchups with him, you can have him on your roster, you can start him without too much fear of him destroying you. And I think he's a fine choice. I mean, really, you look at his career apart from the juice ball era, and I'm going to say we're not in the juice ball year anymore. Apart from that, he's been great at home run suppression, and that's really been the key to his success,

including last year when he had a sub three ERA. All right. Let's talk about some, really, I don't think we need to spend much time on these three guys. They're all 14% rostered or less. Any thoughts on Jesse Shulton's Ross Tripling or Zach Little, Jesse Shulton's six strikeouts, six innings versus Cleveland. He's 4% rostered, 29 year old with a 501 ERA in his career at AAA. Ross Tripling, we've seen be pretty good over the course of his career quality starts in his two previous starts before, five and a third. one earn run against Oakland, seven strikeouts. And then Zach Little against Detroit, two solid starts in a row, six shutouts, three hits,

one strikeouts, five swinging starts. I don't think there's much here. I think Ross Stripling is probably by far the most interesting, but what are your thoughts? Yeah, and I don't even think Stripling's that interesting. Agreed. All right, we talked about the guys we were going to cut earlier on in the show. We were talking about Chase Silseth. Let's move on to waiver wire hitters.

Is Tyler O'Neill under-roastered at 62%. He homered Saturday. He's hitting 283 with three homers, one steal in 15 games since coming back from the aisle, with a 23% strikeout rate. 62% feels a little low. Yeah, at this point, I think if he's out there in a five outfielder league,

he needs to be picked up. 62% he probably isn't out there in many five outfields leagues. That's probably the majority that he's rostered in already. I don't have enough trust. him to turn to Tyler Ronee on a three outfielder league. Sure. Would you rather have Max Kepler or Matt Walner go with a couple of twins there,

five for 12 with a home run in each game of this weekend series for Max Kepler? He hit 291 with an 840 OPS in July, now has an 1139 mark in August. Matt Wallner, I believe it's nine home runs in 50 games or something. So who would you rather have there? So I didn't add the numbers. for Kepler from Sunday, but going into Sunday, last 39 games, you kind of already said this already, but last 39 games for Kepler, 292 batting average 10 home runs 914 OPS.

Mostly the change seems to be in his barrel rate, which would suggest to me he's kind of just hot right now, which is fine. It's a high-hand play. Walner's very interesting to me, though, because Walner has, I think, legitimate high-end power, like a-minus-level power. and strikes out too much, but he's keeping it around 30%.

When you have that kind of power, if you do that, I think you have a chance. He kind of looks like when I see him, it's like they clone Joey Gallo. He just looks exactly like him. Like the same batting stance, same swing. Which you could take as a compliment or very, at this point, it probably sounds like a criticism to most people, which is fair. I'm sorry, that's seven home runs in 30 games for Matt Warner. But offensively, he is three true outcomes. Like, I mean, that's what his minor league track record shows, too.

I think if you're specifically looking for home runs, Walner's the way to go. He's getting everyday playing time. I saw Rocco Baldelli. You don't have the quote pulled up, but I saw he had very nice things to say about him after this weekend. So I think he has a spot in the Twins lineup for now. But if you're talking like a points league context, Kepler doesn't strike out much. And that's the preferred way to go for that format. All right.

Let me. All right. I was trying to pull up a player's page while you were talking, and I didn't get there in time. Alfonso Rivas, three for five with his first home run in his first game with the Pirates on Friday. 1% roster.

Is this just an NL only guy? Yes. Okay. What about Freddie Furman? Fermin is probably how you pronounce that. He got his first start at D.H. on Sunday. He is a catcher.

hitting 894 OPS 313 batting average 8 home runs in 158 plate appearances Is there anything here? Does he need to be more rostered than he is for his catcher eligibility? Probably worth mentioning that Freddie Fermin is placed for the Royals Of course, have Salvador Perez.

But he's like you said, he's been playing a lot lately and even got to start at DH here with as well as he's performed. Minor league numbers look pretty solid as well. This is something, I didn't even think about this until today when I was looking into Freddie for me. You know, MJ Melendez hasn't gotten a start behind the plate since April?

I don't think he's going to have catcher eligibility next year. That hurts because him and Varshow both. He's barely relevant as a catcher. Right. I mean, that was the whole appeal is the position. Dalton Varsho is a major issue. He's not going to have catcher eligibility next year either. But getting back to Fermin, I would say in two catcher leagues, he's worth looking into at this point.

And some of my 15 teamers, like one, for instance, where I had Salvador Perez and made you to replace him this week. I was putting in a bid on Freddie for me. All right. And then one that I want to see if you want to drop by now. Brett Beatty, hitless and six straight, 134 since the All-Star break. Obviously, we think he's going to play pretty regularly moving forward. but it hasn't been good enough so far. Where are we at on Brett Beatty?

It's about 60% rostered. I mean, in a perfect world, I just stash him on my bench and hope he figures it out. And you can look at Tristan Kostas as a guy who really struggled and then figured it out seemingly overnight. It started way back in May, though.

So, I mean, at what point into figuring it out Did we say CASIS is a guy we can use now in fantasy? And do we have enough time for Beatty to get to that point? Probably not. So in an ideal world, I hold on to him. Realistically, I can't imagine if he was my best chance to pick up a hot ticket item on waivers, I don't think I'd let it stop me. I think I'd be willing to drop Beatty.

All right. We are already over now, but I want to take me literally. Hey, real quick, rank these four players. Andrew Abbott, who starting to hit another rough patch here, eight walks, 10 earn runs, 8Ks over his last two starts. Overall number still very good. Blake Snell, Terrick Scuba, and George Kirby, who had a great start on Saturday, one earn run,

seven innings against the Angels. Terrick Scubal, he has only allowed an earn run in two of his 30, I believe, innings so far this season. And then Blake's now, he was. awesome in July sub 1ERA, 30 walks and 37 innings since July 1st. So rank Andrew Abbott, Blake Snell, Terrick Scoobel, George Kirby, rest of season. I rank them Kirby, Snell, Abbott, Scoobel, which is how I would have ranked them going into the weekend, too. I will point out a couple things.

Scoobel, five and a third innings. That's as long as start so far. He's doing it with a bad offense backing him. That's part of the reason he's in fourth here. I am a little worried about Abbott, have been all along. and Snell's walks are getting to be crazy again. So I think wild. I think Kirby's the only one who is who transcends the glob of this group.

All right. Let's talk about another globular cluster, probably a lower end one. But hey, real quick, rank these five pitchers. Bryce Miller, who starting to show the swing and miss stuff outside of the fastball lately. But obviously previous start before this wasn't great. One run, five innings pitched against the Angels on. Sunday 22 swinging strikes, though. It's a massive number.

Aaron Savalai struggled in his first start for the raise. James Paxton coming back down to Earth a little bit. Merrill Kelly, he's just kind of been terrific all season, but really since coming back from the IL especially. And then Lance Linn, who had a much better start. He's allowed four earned runs all on solo home runs and two starts since joining the Dodgers. Ditch the cutter in the first start.

It was back to not quite where. it was the first in Chicago, but, you know, it didn't seem as much as quite as drastic a change in pitch mix in the second outing. So rank these guys. Bryce Miller, Aaron Savalee, James Paxton, Merrill Kelly and Lance Lynn. Merrill Kelly, whose velocity was back up in this third start back from the aisle. It was down a little in the first two. He's easy number one. I'm still going to go, I'm still going to go James Paxton number two. I think I'll go Lance Miller. I'll, I mean, Lance Lynn over Bryce Miller, three and four, and then Savale 5th. Would you drop Savale for Chase Silseth?

Would I drop Savali for Chase Silseth? All right, maybe. All right, let's do a little quick look at the bullpen situations on Friday in KC. Carlos Hernandez pitched a seventh inning with a one-run lead facing the two, three, four in the Phillies lineup. Nick Whitgren pitched the eighth. Austin Cox got the ninth for his first save. But we still think Hernandez is the guy there, right? If there is a guy?

Hernandez is probably the guy, yes. Carlos Hernandez. For Toronto, Jordan Hicks got the final four outs for his ninth save on Friday, first with the Blue Jays. And then Eric Swanson got the save on Saturday. He wasn't used on Friday. Is this a true committee? moving forward?

I give Swanson the advantage because he got the first save and the third save since they acquired Hicks, and I think Hicks set up for him in one of those games, if I'm remembering correctly. The Hicks save on Friday. Yeah, he got four outs for his save. Four outs,

and when he entered it was a save situation, by the time the ninth inning came, it was a four-run lead. So it was very unconventional how he went about getting that save. Well, it's just to hope Jordan Hicks doesn't get the fourth save and muck everything up. With Andres Munoz of unavailable on Friday, Matt Brash got the save.

So he might be second in line, but Munoz did get the save on Saturday despite walking two. He has three straight saves since the trade deadline. Looks like he's the guy as long as he can hold in. We expect him to be very, very good. Alex Lange is no longer the closer in Detroit. They never officially named a closer. But Ajic, Hinge, when asked if he was the closer, was noncommittal about how he's going to use him. Jimmy Lambert got a two-inning save for the White Sox on Sunday.

I can't imagine there's much there. Emmanuel Class A had some bad luck on Sunday. Three unearned runs for the blown save. Did give up four hits, but one of them was a misplayed ball on the infield. Trevor May had one of the weirder blown saves you're going to see. He retired all five hitters he faced and took a blown save because he came in with a runner on third base and gave up a sack fly. I saw I got the win.

That's weird. Yeah, he ended up getting the win because he pitched the ninth. David Bednar blew a save on Friday, and Edward Aliselae got the save on Sunday. After allowing Turin runs on Saturday, he's the clear guy for the Chicago Cubs. And let's wrap up with, to stream or not to stream. Does Seth Lugo even count for this?

And would you stream him against the Dodgers? Well, I have him as one of my higher sleeper pitchers for this week. So I guess I'd have to say he does count. and I would stream him against the Dodgers more than any of these other guys you've listed here. All right. How would you rank these three? Gavin Williams versus Toronto, Jun Jum Ryu at Cleveland,

and Dane Dunning versus Oakland. I would rank them Dunning Williams-Rew. Probably not expecting another 11th strikeout effort from Dane Dunning this timeout, though. Even against the A's, yeah. Tuesday. There's some interesting options. unfortunately for Brandon Fott coming off the best start

of his major league career now he gets the Dodgers not using him in that one right? I am not. Who do you like on Tuesday Braxton Garrett at Cincinnati Clark Schmidt against the White Sox Miles Michaelis at Tampa

Not like in any of these All right well maybe there are no interesting options and I just lied to everybody How about that? You know stands to reason. All right, that's going to do it for fantasy baseball today. We'll be back on Monday evening, Tuesday morning, with hopefully Frank Stample back. We'll see you guys then.