Fantasy Baseball Today - MUST ADD Jacob Lopez, Rankings Questions & Burying Zac Gallen! (6/26 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Yusei Kikuchi is racking up strikeouts (2:33)! ... Jacob Misiorowski outdueled Paul Skenes (8:03). ... Jacob Lopez looks like a must-add pitcher at the moment (15:49). ... News (24:21): Zach Neto's shoulder MRI came back negative. ... Let's bow our heads and bury Zac Gallen (30:07). ... Max Scherzer was solid in his Blue Jays debut (34:36). ... Jo Adell hit yet another homer (36:07). ... Edward Cabrera continues to pitch well (42:16). ... We have rankings questions on Jacob deGrom, Max Fried, Nick Kurtz and others (45:59). ... We had some pitchers duels in San Diego and Minnesota (58:18). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:01:58). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. He's the Miz, and he's awesome. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 26th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. today on the show. We have another round of rankings questions. Max Scher made his return and Blue Jay's debut. We have a fantasy funeral and much more. But let's jump in. You can put it on the board. Yes. Yes. There were lots of runs put on the board today against Zach Gallen, but we'll get to that in just a little bit. Let's start with something a little bit more positive. Scott, your player of the night. All right. I'm going with you say Kukuchi. was spectacular against the Red Sox seven innings, zero earned runs allowed, three hits, one walk, 12 strikeouts, the biggest number of all, 12 strikeouts in seven innings for you say Kukuchi.

This follows another stellar effort against the Astros, where he also went seven innings, gave up two earned runs, no walks, nine strikeouts. So a nine strikeout effort against the Astros, And now a 12th strikeout effort against the Red Sox. The start before that was 10. Oh, really? The start, okay, I didn't have that one in my notes. But great, three starts in a row. I can say for sure that in the last two starts for you say Kukuchi.

Yeah, that one against Baltimore, the previous one, apart from the 10 strikeouts, it was kind of shaky. But the last two, let's just talk about the last two for Kikuchi, because he basically did the exact same thing in those two starts. He cut down on his fastballs. He threw a lot more curve balls. And this after, remember last year with the Astros, he broke through by really leaning on the slider.

And okay, this is the key for Kikuchi. Unlocked it. Would it continue with the angels? Well, he kept spamming that slider, but it wasn't working for him anymore. Travis Darno, who caught him today, said early this season, he really just had confidence in the slider and that was it. But now he's got confidence in four pitches. He didn't specify the curveball, but Kikuchi himself said, yeah, playing that curveball off the slider has really helped him to just kind of take off here recently.

And we've seen this enough from Kikuchi over his career. You know, it's not always the same thing. it's not always spamming the slider. It's not always mixing into curveball. But it seems like every year he kind of takes some time to figure out what's going to work for him this time. And then he becomes viable, if not good, for fantasy. And so I think that's where we are with him now.

Yeah, it's kind of Blake Snell-esque, where one year it's like the key to Blake Snell's breakout. Don't throw the change up. Throw the curveball more. The next year, it's throw the change up more. Don't throw the curveball. Like, it's always a different path, but he always does manage to get there. And the thing with Kukuchi early on this season that really stood out was he dropped his arm slot significantly. He went from a 42-degree arm angle to a 34-degree arm angle.

And changing your arm slot is not inherently good or bad. I think there is kind of a movement this in recent years for more pitchers to drop their arm slots. I think the theory is less. about performance and more about health. I don't, I have no idea. I know, you know, Saras has talked and written about that a little bit, but in this case, it seems to have messed up his slider. It's funny that Travis Darno said he was only comfortable with the,

or confident in the slider, because prior to this start, the slider's been awful this season. It's been really bad. 400 expected Wobah allowed 23.3% whiff rate. That is not very good for it. a slider and actually the change up in curveball have been the better pitches for him. And so this three-start stretch has coincided with him dropping the slider usage down from about 40% to around 30% in these three starts and throwing the curveball and change up a little

more. The last two, especially it's been a lot fewer fastballs, which is probably not a bad thing. And yeah, it's, I was kind of out on Yasekakuchi entirely. I think I had dropped him like outside of the top 50, maybe. even the top 60 in my SP rankings. And now the last three starts certainly have me reconsidering that. I'm going to do my weekly rankings update tomorrow today as you're listening, I guess. And he might work his way back into that top 40 discussion just because there's a lot of fungibility in that 40 range anyway.

A lot of those injury stashes are just kind of there for me. And so it wouldn't be tough to throw you say Kikuchi ahead of, I don't know, Blake Snell and Tyler Glassnow. You know, I know Glass Now especially is a little closer, but like he could end up in that range. I think that's reasonable. It's hard not to see the glass have full on Glass Now right now. That was one of my rankings questions for later is does Kakucci deserve to be a big riser? And I kind of feel like he does. I think getting him back inside the top 60 at least, which, you know, would make him.

Not a must-star pitcher, but, you know, in a 12-team league, he's probably your SP-5. You might be starting him a decent amount of the time. And he's 78% rostered Kikuchi. So, look, in some shallower leagues, he might be hanging around on the waiver wire. So just check to see. 78 on CBS probably translates to like 52 on Yahoo. Yeah, with the way he's pitching right now, double-digit strikeouts and three straight, seven-plus innings in three of the last four for you say Kikuchi.

So a name that's definitely trending up there. I do think that he will wind up back inside my top 60 starting pitchers. And someone else who has been a big riser over the past couple weeks is Jacob Miziarowski, Chris, who actually outduled Paul Skeens. Yeah, I mean, look, I can't imagine we're going to talk very much about Paul Skeens later on. So I'll just say, I'm not on the rundown. Yeah, he was, it was a bad start. It wasn't a bad start.

Worst of his career, probably. But it was the most runs he allowed in an inning in his career. I think it was four runs in just one of those innings. Yeah, and in that inning, I think he gave up like a 62 mile per hour double. So no, I'm not too concerned about that. But, you know, I think it was Mike Petriello of MLB.com who tweeted this. So I'm going to just steal that from him. There aren't many times, I don't think maybe ever, that you've watched Paul Skeen's pitched and thought,

I'm not sure he has the best stuff in this game. And that might have happened today. At the very least, Jake, it was one of the first starts of Paul Skeen's career where he was not even close to the hardest throwing starting pitcher in his game. Jacob Mizorowski averaged 99.5 miles per hour with his four seamer. He got 10 whiffs with that pitch. Only 13 whiffs total. You can do the math there. Only three other whiffs with the rest of his arsenal.

But he's just been so good. The swinging strike rates have been weirdly not that great so far. especially on the slider, no whiffs on seven swings today. But what I will say today is he filled up the strike zone with that slider. He threw 72% of them in the zone, which helped him get some called strikes. And that pitch, I think, is more like a cutter, really. He throws it so hard, 94 miles an hour. It doesn't get like huge movement, although for the velocity, it certainly does.

but I do think, you know, we were talking before the show, I think where Mizirowski is right now is sort of Skeens-esque. They have very different approaches. Skeens is a kitchen sink guy. He's got six or seven different pitches. Mizirowski technically throws four, but he throws two like 90% of the time. And it's the fastball on the slider.

And I think where he's at right now, it's probably less a swing and miss arsenal and more of a contact suppression arsenal, but that cutter is really hard to do anything with. And the fastball is pretty hard to do anything with too. And I'm moving them into my top, definitely top 40. And then I start to look at the guys I have like in the 30 range. and it was like Luis Castillo

and gosh I sorry I was looking at the wrong rankings Tanner Bybee Tanner Bybee and Kevin Gosman and guys like that that are just like I think they're all fine and there's there's paths to upside for all of them

but would I would I rather have Kevin Gosman than Jacob Mizirowski right now? Absolutely not so I'm just going to go ahead and do it and there are reasons to be a little bit skeptical about Mizorosky. Swing and mix. Miss has not been as abundant as you would think, given the stuff.

Command, I think that's going to be an iffy part of his game. How many innings are they going to let him throw? He only got to 97 last year, I think. That's a decent amount. I think he gets get up to like 140 this year. But they want to make the playoffs too, so they got to preserve something for there.

So like if they wanted to limit him to, 130 in the regular season. We know they've got Logan Henderson down there if they want to go with a six-man rotation. Whose innings they aren't trying very hard to preserve, it turns out. So that makes me think, you know, he might only have 50 more innings left. It might just be 10 more starts with an average of five innings because they've been pretty cautious with him.

He threw, what, 74 pitches today? That's all just to say that I think there's a lower ceiling than you might think, given how talented he is. But he might just be awesome for those 50-something innings the rest of the way. And I don't think he can get to top 12 the rest of the season, although that might be in his long-term future. I think certainly the upside is there. But I think 30-ish makes sense.

There may also be a point. And it hasn't really happened yet. In this start, he threw 68% of his pitches for strikes, which is great. but like control was a major issue throughout his minor league career it was less of an issue at AAA this year but it still wasn't good control and so look it goes without saying the guys allowed three hits across three starts so far like he's he's not going to be this good all the time but we haven't seen really the the ugly side the darker side with the control issues

appear yet so I kind of want to press this a little more well there was one there was the one five walk start, right? Okay. Yeah, fair enough. I want to press this a little with Luis Castillo. Okay, so Luis Castillo and Tanner Bybee, I think everybody can agree, Miserowski on them. Where it gets more challenging is Sunny Gray. Yeah.

Jack Flaherty. A couple pitchers whose ERAs have run hot this year, especially lately for Flaherty, but we still see the talent. I mean, Flaherty didn't have a great start here on Wednesday, but he got 19 swinging strikes. So I'm really struggling with Flaherty. Yeah. I think I would still rank those two ahead of Mizorowski, but that's the line. So that puts them 36th in my own rankings. I think I have some other injured guys ahead maybe.

You know, it's just a number in the grand scheme of things. But that's where I draw the line, I think, in terms of how high I rank Miserowski rest of season. One of my rankings questions for later, and you could just give me, a name answer here is who would you who do you rank higher rest of season mizierowski or chase burns they'll be back to back for me i'll probably give the edge to mizzerowski because it's three starts versus one but that's that's thin reasoning i'm gonna give mizzerowski just a little more of an edge just because we have a little bit more of a proof of concept for it he's done it for three starts and burns has only done it for one um that's yeah but that's copycat

I think it's a, did I, did you say exactly that? Yeah. Yeah, and fewer words. That was like a change my homework, but don't make it look exactly the same kind of thing. But yeah, I think they're in the same range. And clearly, guys, you want in your roster at the end, at the end of the day. And last. Sorry, I was like searching in my rankings.

And so not only was I not, apparently listening to you. but I just wasn't listening to myself just now and I lost my train of thought. So that's a good trait to have when your job is speaking extemporaneously. I am not one to criticize as far as repeating something someone just said. And look, surprisingly, you guys miss

the main reason why Mizziarowski has succeeded so far. Because I'm the man. Okay, I was wondering if that was a reference to him. Yeah, okay. Yep, yep. That is, you know, me. Wrestling drops. Real world star.

Whenever I could get wrestling drops in here, I'm going to do it. My player of the night is Jacob Lopez, who was great once again this time at the Tigers. Seven shutout innings, three hits, one walk, six strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 103 pitches. And actually change up the pitch mix here. He's kind of done a lot of that from start to start. It's like, you know, he can go with the slider some starts. He'd go with the change up some starts. But all in all, his three main pitches look pretty good so far with that fastball slider and changeup combinations.

here for Jacob Lopez. The slider was dominant, had six whiffs, 40% whiff rate in this one, limited hard contact. He has allowed a total of one earned run over his last four starts. 29 strikeouts over 23 innings during that span. He is an extreme fly ball pitcher,

but has done a good job limiting barrel so far. Elite extension from the left hand side, which I think makes him a very unique pitcher. We don't really see that that often. And he's only 39, percent rostered, good minor league numbers. I am ready to say that Jacob Lopez is a must-add pitcher.

I don't know if you guys agree. Yeah, I agree. It's not, you know, it's not like Chase Burns where it's like, okay, this guy's going to be a hit for sure. Yeah. It's, he had great minor league numbers this year, but wasn't ever really much of a prospect.

This is Jacob Lopez I'm talking about now. And there are some flaws here like he doesn't throw very hard he has an extremely high fly ball rate that could be a problem in Sacramento long term but he's

just this unconventional type with the low arm ankle and the extension you refer to and the very low induced vertical break on the fastball that seems to just

the oddity of it seems to be making it a good swing and miss pitch in its own right. And now he's done it as a three starts in a row where he's just been fantastic with a big strikeout number. And like you've got to take the shot on it at this point. And people have been very reluctant, even like pros in 15 team leagues. I got him, I got Jacob Lopez for next to nothing during the Sunday waiver run. but you know

you could see how it could work you could see how it could all blow up but sometimes it doesn't it didn't all blow up for Joe Ryan going back further it didn't all blow up for Rich Hill when you get these just unconventional types

who are missing a ton of bats it eventually blew up for like Mike fires but it doesn't it doesn't always blow up and so I think I think we're to a point now where particularly

since it was so successful for Lopez and the miners. Just try it out, see where it takes you. Yeah, and I want to add on to this because, you know, Frank, you said he's an extreme fly ball pitcher. And what you mean by that is he gives up a lot of fly balls. But I do want to highlight that it's also the types of fly balls he gives up tend to be very extreme. He actually got some grounders in this one.

That's a new thing because he's had like a 17% ground ball rate. But you look at the launch angle on the batting balls he gave up. And he had a 58 degree 1, a 56, 55, 30, like 39. Those are probably not ever going to be hits. Balls that are hit at that steep in an angle, you've got to hit them like, I mean, a 39 degree launch angle, you've got to hit like 110 miles an hour to get out probably. And so those are basically automatic outs. And I think the key thing with Jacob Lopez, he's weird.

There's just, there might not be another pitcher like this in baseball. And, you know, he's got this kind of super side army, not quite Chris Sale, but, you know, not far off. And look, Chris Sale's got much better stuff. It's a different approach, different arsenal. But one thing that Baseball Savant has on their player pages for pitchers is they've got their movement profile. and then how those pitches move for other players. And so they've got like this little grade out zone. And his movement profile for every pitch is way different than the MLB average for those pitch types.

And what that means is the arm angle, the movement profile, they all just move differently than what players are used to seeing. And now I think because the stuff is not great and because he is such an extreme fly ball pitcher, eventually I do think it's going to catch up to him. I don't think Jacob Lopez is someone that you're going to add this week and just lock into your lineup for the rest of the season. I think at some point, this is going to go wrong. He's going to be more like a four or five ERA pitcher. But I do think for the next few weeks, maybe the next few months, maybe the rest of the season, Jacob Lopez can be weird enough to get by. And that, I think, given the success he's had, yeah, absolutely go at him right now. I'm glad I got a chance to bring up Mike Fires on today's show.

I didn't even do it intentionally. He just naturally came up, which is funny, because he runs a baseball program at one of the high schools down here, and they're putting on a baseball camp for kids, and my kids are going to it. And Mike Fires hadn't been there yet. He showed up today when they were playing a wiffle ball game. He came in and pitched to one kid,

and it happened to be. my oldest son. He faced Mike fires today and he walked. He drew a walk against a weekend. Wow. How do you like that? He was so excited. That is awesome. The one kid fires face today. Very nice. Love to hear it. Getting back to Lopez here, 39% rostered. He's a spark as well. So for those who play in points leagues, looks like he does line up for two starts next week against the Giants and at Tampa Bay. But I think we will confirm that on tomorrow's episode with the weekly preview. Wanted to give us a show.

Shout out to Juan Soto, who just continues to mash. The guy's on fire, he's figuring things out with the Mets now. In June has 10 homers with a 1238 OPS. That is the highest OPS of any hitter this month. He also made history with 27 career multi-home run games, surpassing Jimmy Fox for the most all time by a player before turning 27 years old. So a Hall of Fame career thus far for Juan Soto.

Before we hit our break, download and follow our 10-minute podcast. FBT Express wherever you listen to this podcast. We have our prospects to stash episode dropping later today. And big thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

Let's get into the news and notes. And Zach Neno did get an MRI on his right shoulder. It came back negative. Thankfully, he was pulled Tuesday after jamming his shoulder on a stolen base attempt. So we haven't learned much else, but the fact that it's negative, again, it's good news. Maybe he sits out a couple more games here, but we'll see where things go with Zach Netto. Wyatt Langford was out of the lineup Wednesday due to a left side tightness. He'll undergo testing when the Rangers return back home.

Remember that he dealt with a left oblique strain back in spring training, and then actually went on the IL with a right oblique strain back in April. So these obliques have just been causing problems all season for Langford. and honestly he got up to a pretty good start and then from the middle of May or late May on he's just completely fallen off so perhaps it is because of that oblique injury. As expected, E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez was out again

with that hand injury but he did take light batting practice on Wednesday and express confidence that he'll return on Friday. They're still waiting for swelling to come down so they can take an MRI of his hand as well. Hunter Green is scheduled to throw a bullpen early next week. He's working his way back from a groin strain and back soreness. Shane McClanahan threw off a mound on Wednesday his first time doing so

since being shut down earlier this month. And look, with the rays surging right now, there's a little bit more incentive to, I guess, get Shane McClanahan back and, you know, make a, not only a playoff push, but a push to maybe even win the division. So we'll see. O'Neill Cruz was moved down to fifth in the Pirates lineup. That comes one day after he was removed from the game due to a lack of effort.

And in June, I didn't realize it was this bad, but a 148 batting average, 457 OPS, 32 strikeouts over 21 games. The overall strikeout rate is up to 33%. This is kind of a problem for O'Neil Cruz. I just figured out somebody else that can move Pete Crow Armstrong ahead of. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, the Fell For It Again Award meme? I feel like that's kind of every, every good and bad stretch for O'Neill Cruz. It's like, ah, this is who he is forever now. And it's like, no, I think he's just a wildly variant player. The good stretches are really good and the bad stretches are really, really bad. He's been say he's been much better defensively lately. He's looked a lot more comfortable on center field.

Bob Milvin said there's a chance that Raphael Devers will start some games at first base during their upcoming road trip. Alex Corr said it looks like. Alex Bregman won't return until after the All-Star break. Zander Bogartz was scratched in the lineup due to left shoulder soreness. He missed the game earlier this month with the same issue. Jordan Westberg returned to the lineup after missing three straight with a sprained left index finger. Michael Harris was back in the lineup after leaving Tuesday following a hit by pitch on his right elbow. Luis Robert left Wednesday due to left hamstring tightness.

Mark Vientos could be activated from the aisle on Thursday. he's been out with a hamstring injury and that's it for Dickie Love Lady. The Mets designated him for assignment so that was fun while it lasted. I did have some prospect updates here. Rangers prospect Sebastian Walcott has started seven games

at third base in the past month and I'm not sure that that is a coincidence considering it happened while Josh Young is in this terrible slump so do with that what you will. You do a Homer today though. That is true. And Walcott's

at AA and only hitting 248 there. So I'm not sure they're prepping them for a promotion. Not this season, but maybe they're thinking long term like, Josh Young isn't the guy, you know. We got six more years of Seeger, however many it is. Yeah. And I don't know if Emmett Sheehan is still a prospect anymore, but just have to mention that he had a 13 strikeout performance

over six perfect innings at AAA on Wednesday. I know that Dodgers need bullpen help, yada, yada, yada. up, but I don't know. It still, it kind of seemed baffling at the time. It seems even more baffling now that they sent him down after a good start. So they only have one good starting pitcher right now. And Yoshinobu Yamamoto, I mean, it depends how you feel about Dustin May, I guess, because he's still there, but clearly.

But they were using like Justin Robleski as a bulk reliever, you know. The argument that Dave Roberts made was Reblesski's more stretched out, that they had more faith because Reblisky pitched yesterday. And they had more faith in him being able to go deep into that game than she had. But I don't think she and she has gone five innings in a start yet, majors or minors, but now he's gone six in one. Yeah.

No, I would be shocked if he wasn't back whenever he's first eligible, including if they have to put someone on the IL, they could just call him back. Right. As soon as that happens. So, um, because it has to be 15 days once a,

a pitcher is sent to the minors. He has to be there 15 days unless somebody goes on the aisle and he can come back earlier. You know, he's not technically a prospect, Emmett Sheehan. He's a little over the innings threshold for that. But my prospects report that's, by the time most of you were listening,

already out, Sheehan's the top minor leaker to stash now. And I think outside of Burns, Mizierowski, Jacob Lopez, and Jose Soriano, I think Sheehan is like the next name to roster, pitch her to pick up off the waiver wire and have on your team. At least for me, I feel like that makes sense. All right, guys, we don't do this often, but I hate to, you know, enter a somber segment here.

But it is time to hold a fantasy funeral. Thank you for the good time, Zach Allen. Top three, Cy Young in 2023. Also top five the year before in 2022. He helped the debacks win the National League pennant back in 20, 2023, lots of consistent seasons, a former fantasy ace. Just in the wind. Thank you for destroying my Yankees earlier this season.

13 strikeout performance, the good old days. But it's officially time to say goodbye. Let's all bow our heads in a moment of silence for Zach Allen. Zach Allen stinks. It is all over because even against the White Sox, five and a third innings, eight hits, five runs allowed, two homers allowed in this one, nine hard hits, velocity was down, four plus earned runs in eight of his last nine starts.

He has allowed nine homers in his past five outings. The walks are a problem. The barrels are a problem. The homers are a problem. He's still 93% rostered. He's 75% started. He's a two-star pitcher next week. Do not use him.

Do not use him. Not even in points leagues. Yeah. The stuff. plus metric has been in a two-year decline now the command has not been good enough to overcome it i can't say i'm certain that we're finished with zach allen as he's not the fantasy option forever but i'm not ready to declare i'm dead for fantasy purposes the white he's dead to me the white sucks yeah you can't use them right now i mean and if you if you need the roster spot i don't think

dropping him is no terrible idea it's been i am surprised It's been a full year since he's been a useful fantasy option now. I am surprised he's still 93% rostered in CBS leagues. I have, you know, if you want to drop him, go ahead. But understand that you are forfeiting something. You're forfeiting a chance at Zach Allen. Because there is a chance that just clicks one day and he's fine. That happens particularly for a pitcher with as lengthy of a track record as this.

it's not uncommon for a guy to just lose it for a while. And then suddenly, oh, this is what I was doing wrong. I'm fine again. And so, you know, if you drop Zach down, and that happens, you may not get them back. And if you can live with that, fine, drop them. And I'm not saying, I'm not saying that in like a snide way, like you're wrong to come to that conclusion that you can live without that smallish percentage chance that he just suddenly writes himself. But I don't know that I would make that decision in every league. That I just, yeah, I can, whatever I can get off the waiver wire is valuable enough that I can live without the chance of true Zach Gallen.

Yeah, it's just, it's just not something I do in every league. But it's not wrong to do if that makes sense. His command is just so far gone for really, I mean, that's been the biggest problem in the past year or so is that, okay, he, he's walking too many and then when he throws in the strike zone he's missing his spot so badly that he's getting squared up he's getting destroyed so it's just maybe that can just click at some point but again it's it's been a year now that this has been happening so maybe that does but i mean 93 is just that is way too high in my opinion for zach allen to be rostered uh i i would go ahead and drop him for jacob lopez maybe i regret those words but i yeah at this point i yeah i would

make that's fine um yeah I just know I play in a lot of leagues where the best player, well, Jacob Lopez is kind of a weird example because his roster rate is so low. But let's take him out of this. And the best pitcher I could pick up for dropping Zach Gallen would be Charlie Morton or. Yeah, the juice isn't worth the squeeze there, I think. Yeah. Yeah. No, I get it.

And in deeper leagues where the WaveWire is bad, I mean, you probably can just afford to stick them on your bench with, I don't know, the sling. chance that he does figure things out. But yeah, I think in a lot of shallower leagues where, you know, most people listening to this podcast play, I think Zach Allen could probably go. What about Max Scherzer? He made his Blue Jays debut and he was okay at the Guardians, five innings, three runs, three walks, four strikeouts, only had seven whiffs on 83 pitches. Despite the three walks, he did throw 66% of his pitches for strikes. Velocity was up in this one. And it looks like he is in line for two starts next week against the Yankees and the Angels.

So look, the Yankees are slumping right now, but they could always just kind of turn it on out of nowhere. Angels, good matchup. You can get a lot of strikeouts against them. And we'll have to see over the next couple of days how Scher's thumb and body responds to this start. But I can see maybe using him in a two-star week next week. What do you guys see from Scher?

Velocity was up. That was good to see. And that's kind of the extent. of the bright points, but it was his first start after a very tricky recovery. So I'm not surprised the three walks were there.

Only seven lifts on 83 pitches. I think it's a keep an eye on it. And if you have to activate him from the IL this weekend, he's certainly not a must roster player is what I'll say. Yeah, that's, yeah, no, no disagreements.

I had hoped for more, but it was. It wasn't the sort of outing that makes me want nothing to do with Shers or either. All right. Let's get into some WaverWire hitters from Wednesday's action. Joe Adele continues to hit for power, his 17th home run of the season. 10 home runs now in June alone with an OPS over a 1,061% rostered. Does that number sound right?

I mean, now we get into Points League territory. Do you think Joe Adele needs to be rostered in a points league? It doesn't need to be now But I'm fine playing the hot hand with him If that's what you want to do I agree And he's been very hot And in a way that doesn't seem totally unsustainable

Because his expected stats have looked pretty good All year It's just the plate discipline is so bad for points leagues Maybe like You know some three outfield or category leagues I think Adele is pretty prime pickup right now. I would take Addison, yeah, that's his first name.

I would take Addison Barger over him. I think so too. And I think I would take Jerks and ProFar ahead of him too. That's a closer call. Definitely in a points league categories, a little bit closer between those two, Adel and ProFar. I think I might lean Adele in a Categor's League. And speaking of head to head categories,

Adele only 35% rostered on Yahoo. So if you play there, you want to stream for some power right now. He's hot. Trent Grisham looks like he might be picking things back up. He went four for six with two doubles. Last 13 games, he's hitting 288 with two home runs. 58% rostered. You know, he's playing a little bit better recently,

but I don't know. I think he's mostly cooled down from that, you know, a hot start early in the season. So me personally, I'm not looking to re-ad Grisham. How about you guys? I can turn back into trunk rush him Yeah, fair enough What about Lane Thomas?

He looks to be heating up two for four With his third home run Back to back games with the homer In 14 games since returning He hit 262, three homers Two steals 830 OPS Don't do it I've got to let people

Before we started the podcast We were talking before about Lane Thomas These two are done Just completely He's had one good season Yeah I mean he was useful last purpose is it was more than one he was useful last be fair he was useful last year but he was he was

terrible after he got sent to click cleveland true and was not playing every day i mean i just look at oh he's so hot he's still batting 178 he's ops is what 527 yeah but you just look at the numbers in june you know scott i i would not to totally preempt to the whole prospects report but i would rather pick up chase delauter yeah the outfield prospect for the Guardians than Lane Thomas. All right, we did get a big game from Kyle Teal, who went three for four with a double and two runs scored. He's hitting 282 within OBP over 400, a 767 OPS, a name for two catcher leagues,

and we've lost a lot of catchers recently, so Kyle Teal is an option. And then Lenin Sosa had himself a big game, of course, because he was facing Zach Gowan, who doesn't have a big game. Three for four with a double dong and four RBI here, only 4% rostered, first, second, and third base eligible. Very deep league name.

Any interest at all in a Lenin Sosa? He's got 76th percentile average exit velocity. That shocks me. Max exit velocity, 63rd percentile. That's decent, obviously. The percentile speaks for itself. I don't think I have to contextualize that. A terrible walk rate, but expected stats are solid.

A solid, terrible lineup, obviously. Sounds like a deep league option, Lenin Sosa, but a player who may have a future in this game, which is more than we can say for a lot of White Sox hitters who've appeared over the past two years. Yeah. You know, the only thing is, I guess that's working against him, is Chris, we talked about a bunch of deep league middle infielders yesterday,

and I think almost all of them were more interesting than Lenin Sosa, right? It was Tyler Freeman who's leading off of the Rocky. and he's hitting the ball hard. Nick Gonzalez, who's having a big month so far. Caleb Durbin, who's been hitting well for the brewers. So I think I would take all those over him, but... Yeah, absolutely. He's, you know, Sosa's hitting the ball hard.

He's getting a chance to play, so a very deep league named there. Let's take our final break when we return. WaiverWire pitchers and some other rankings questions. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Some quick waiver wire pitchers here. Edward Cabrera continues to pitch well, this time at the Giants. five and a third innings, two runs with six strikeouts,

and over his last nine starts, a 236 ERA and a 120 whip. Colton Gordon of the Astros actually out-duled Zach Wheeler, five shutout innings, four hits with four strikeouts, and Sean Burke of the White Sox has been better lately, question mark. Five innings, two unearned runs, seven strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 83 pitches. Over his last nine starts, it's a 333, 3ER with a 139 whip.

So not sure, I'm not going to even use the word trust, but I'm not sure there's much interest in a Sean Burke, despite those numbers. What do you guys think on Burke, Colton Gordon, and Edward Cabrera? I don't think a whole lot. Colton Gordon is good at one thing, and that's throwing strikes. He throws them at a very high rate. And it's worked out pretty well for him so far.

but I think even in that context, the upside's very limited and I think they're going to be worse times ahead for Colton Gordon. So just not useful enough, I don't think. And Burke has a little more swing and missability, but I particularly given the bad team context, I don't think he's really worth pursuing either.

And then Edward Cabrera, you know, same old, same old. I will say he has made some legitimate changes. Over this nine-star stretch, he's throwing that sinker a lot more. It's really helped his command play a little better. It's probably always going to be pretty bad, but it's been playable lately. And so I think Cabrera is the most useful of this group.

There are limitations because of his team contacts, especially, but I think he's clearly the best pitching of this group. Like, how many times has he gone? Early hook, yeah. They, I mean, they pulled him after like 70 pitches in his most recent start before this, I think. So, yeah, they've been very quick with Ever Cabrera. But again, a two-star week next week? I think he's pretty useful.

Yeah, I'll look. When I do my two-star pitcher rankings, I'll look into the matchups and, I don't think it'll rank very high. Because if you're not going six innings ever on a bad team, you're just never going to win a game. And I feel like, okay, there's some talent there for Edward Cabrera that maybe will be unlocked someday. I'm just not. It feels like a stop trying to make fetch happen kind of situation at this point where I, you have to squint so hard. to find the positives here.

It's just not worth pursuing to me. Maybe the most interesting part of Edward Cabrera is the fact that the Cubs have been scouting both him and Sandy Alcancorous. So if he winds up in Chicago, that would be much better. Yeah, I think, what do we call that?

When a player changes teams? Change of scenery. Change of scenery, yes. I do think Edward Cabrera could benefit from that. I do want to point out Colton Gordon is a two-star pitcher name. week. Don't use him next week. It's at course field and at the Dodgers.

Yeah, that is. Don't want that one. Well, that's what it looks like right now, at least. No, boy, you know. All right, let's get into some rankings questions here. And Jacob de Grom took a perfect game into the seventh. And then he took a no-hitter into the eighth at the Orioles, wound up seven plus shutout, one hit, two walks, seven strikeouts, has a quality start in five of his, five straight and seven of his last eight. He also has allowed two run runs or fewer. in 13 straight. Look, we never know how long

Jacob de Grom is going to stay healthy, but my ranking's question here is how many pitchers would you actually rather have rest of the season ahead of Jacob de Grom? Six. Scott? Do you want the names or just the number? Yeah, you could rattle them off.

Terrick Scoobiles, Zach Wheeler, Paul Skeen's, Chris Sales, hurt, so now it's five. I had an update in my rankings. Derek crochet and Yoshinovi Yamamoto. There's five pitchers I'd rather have than Jacob de Grom at this point. I would also prefer Logan Webb, Max Fried, Hunter Brown. Okay. Schwellenbach, I could go either way.

I just, I think he's better than those guys. Yeah, but he's always been better than those guys. That, that's not the only calculus here. So this is the thing that's really tough, right? because it's not just it's Jacob de Grom, he's going to have trouble staying healthy. It's also it's Jacob de Grom. I don't know if you guys notice. He average 98.4 miles per hour with his four seamer today.

He average 98.3, the start before. So is that good or bad? Well, that's the question because when he, when that Jeff Passon piece came out in March, I think the general consensus from fantasy analysts was what the article where Jacob deGrom said, I'm not going to throw as hard as I have the past few years. I think the general consensus from. fantasy players and analysts, which is backwards from how we almost always approach it. But the general consensus was, this is good news.

We're going to move Jacob to Grum up in our rankings. There's history there. He didn't throw his heart early in his career, and he was a 200-inning Cy Young winner. He started throwing harder. And he got better on a per-inning basis, but couldn't even make it 100-innings. And he's not at that velocity level. Like, even in this start, he was at 9. 98.4.

It's been trending up, though. It's been. Yeah. Look, I don't know. It's, I think I don't know yet. I think he's gotten to 100 innings now, right? I don't know. Let's, I can pull that up real quick.

I think it's the most innings he had since his last healthy Cy Young season. He's at 90 right now. 90.1. No, 95. Okay. Yeah. 0. 95.

Yep. Is that? That is the most innings he's thrown since 2019. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, he's already beaten the odds. Mm-hmm. It doesn't mean he always will, but it was never true that he absolutely won it.

Yeah. So I want to be a little more cautious. I mean, Hunter Brown, Max Fried, those guys I've lifted off, they're all so good that I'm not. sure you gain that much tangibly by swapping them out for de grom but you do gain a lot more risk i think i mean look if they all made the same number of starts i think you gain a lot mostly in strikeouts well oh and strikeout rate hasn't been that high this sure it's it's around one per per yeah de grom and dagram and freed it's negligible difference between yeah that's fair i guess Yeah. Well, I'm sticking with DeGrom.

That's my next question is Max Freed becomes the first pitcher to 10 wins this season. He was at the Reds. Seven innings, one unearned run with seven strikeouts. He had 196 pitches. Nine of those came on the curveball. And my question here was DeGrom or Freed rest of season. And Scott, you already answered it. You went, you went freed and Chris, you have to grab higher.

I did it early. There you go. One thing I wanted to point out here. I answered it as well. Yeah, we both anticipated. I don't think we need to only praise Scott. We praise Chris too. You're welcome.

Everybody deserves praise here. I agree. That's why I don't think we just need to praise one guy. We can praise everybody. Did you guys notice that Stackcast recently reclassified Freed's pitch mix for the entire season? The cutter is now his most used pitch at 31%. That was a pitch that he only used 5% last year.

And according to Stacast, his cost. Cutter velocity is 93.5 miles per hour. Last season was 88. His four-seem fastball is 95.4 miles per hour. Last year was 93.9. So I don't know when, where this change happened or what's going on. Maybe it's kind of just like a cut fastball variation kind of thing. But, I mean, it might explain why Max Fried is having a career year.

I have trouble. I don't know if this is going to be a cop-out. But, Chris, you referred to Paul Skeens as a kitchen sink type of guy earlier. Max Freed is also a kitchen sink kind of guy. And I just, you know, I go look at his arsenal every time he starts and comparing it to a season long arsenal. It's always so different. It's always so different. Oh, he's one of those.

I don't even look. Yeah. I don't have anything to learn from that. Right. It's just such a jumble that I don't think there's anything to glean from it. So it's interesting. I don't necessarily make anything of it. Yeah, it's sort of like,

like what that reminds me of is just Justin Steele, where everybody looks at Justin Steele and is like, oh, he's a two pitch pitcher. Technically, yeah, but the, there is a spectrum between Justin Steele's slider and his foreseamer, where sometimes he throws a true four seamer, sometimes it's a cutter, sometimes the slider is more like a cutter,

sometimes the slider is a little sweepier. Like, you know, we have these one-off definitions for pitches, but guys have always been able to manipulate what they're doing. And so, you know, some guys get the 10 pitch treatment like Seth Lugo because they are throwing 10 distinct shapes. And some guys, it's a blur. And I think that's the thing with Max Fried is that he's just kind of throwing things all over the place. Mm-hmm.

It just surprised me that they changed it out of nowhere and apparently he was throwing this cutter so much harder this season. So I don't know, maybe I'll look again next week and it'll change again. So who knows? We already spoke about Ms. Yarowski and Kikuchi here as part of our ranking segment. Nick Kurtz continues to mash three for three with his 11th home run had three RBI. And in his last 19 games, he's hitting 306 with 10 homers, 22 RBI,

an OPS over 1050, how high can Nick Kurtz get in the first base rankings? I could get him to 10th. It wouldn't take very much. And maybe when I get there tomorrow, I will just do that. Because a lot of the guys ahead of him are pretty mediocre right now.

And Torkelson. Torkelson is starting to look like what we thought it would look like. Torkelson's having a bad June too. I mean, maybe he gets him up. starting to lose playing time. Maybe you get him up to nine. I don't know.

Well, yeah, I have. Oh, you have Salvador Perez. Salazar and Wilson Contreras. But I mean, I don't think it's crazy to put Kurtz ahead of presence either. No, not at all. So, yeah, I think he could get that high. It might be an overreaction because as we are seeing with Spencer Torkelson and Paul Goldschmidt slowed down and Tyler Sotom, just because you are having a good month,

does not mean you will forever be a good player, even for a young guy like Nick Kurtz and Spencer Torquesson and Tyler Sardustrom. And even if the underlying numbers back it up, that doesn't necessarily mean that you will be great forever. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he's doing it, especially when the other guys aren't. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. It's that kind of like 10 through 20 range at first base has been a jumble all season because I'm never quite sure where to put Johnson. Jonathan Ironda and Michael Bush with their platoon issues. I'm not sure what to do with Yondi Diaz right now.

I think you could make a case for Yadi Diaz being a top 10 first basement with the way he's hitting right now. Especially in points leagues. Yeah. Yeah. You could say you have Kurtz and or Diaz and Kurtz back to back 9 and 10. And I don't think it would be crazy. Yeah.

I think that that would be. So defensible right now. To drill down on Kurtz a little more. His strikeout rate has gotten worse. Like it's over 30% in June. which is not good. You never want to see that for anybody. If you're a good enough power hitter, you can overcome it,

and Kurtz might be. But I prefer that go the other way as the production is trending up for Kurtz. So the strikeout rate is coming under control. So that leaves me a little hesitant. But, you know, there's a lot of talent here. I think there is more talent, just if we're evaluating talent here.

I think Kurtz has more than Torkelson. I think he has more than Soderstrom. Pasquantino. He has more talent than Pasquantino. I feel like I want to keep Pasquantino ranked ahead of him, certainly in points leagues. But it's upside-wise. Kurtz is ahead, sure.

All right, last name I want to ask you about here is Max Muncie of the Dodgers, who stayed hot, two for four with a grand slam, 6 RBI updated numbers since getting glasses. 286 batting average 11 homers 46 rBI in 47 games a 944 OPS during that time similar question how high can you get max Muncie in the third base rankings I'm thinking 12 I have him I think 13th 14th in roto and I have him in points higher is that Mikeau Garcia slides below him in points or 13th in points No, I have Michael Garcia head in point. I don't know what the difference is.

I'll take you to figure out. There's also like Alex Bregman. It might be a hitting a Suarez below him in points. Oh, I got Bregman and Suarez, 8 and 9. But Bregman's tough because we just don't know when he's going to be back. Yeah, I think right after all start breaking out.

Yeah, I think I'll be back within the next month. Yeah. And then there's like, Jordan Westberg, I think the upside's still worth having. The second base eligibility is the main thing there. I'd still take you sack Paredes. So yeah, I think 12 for Moncie is the peak. Yeah, it kind of depends Chapman because he's right now.

Has he been doing anything? I haven't really. I don't think I've seen anything. I think they said early July. Okay. Yeah. My kids saw that Muncie stat on the TV. when we were at a restaurant the other day.

And they thought it was the funniest thing. They could see the ball now. They both got glasses recently. And so like the fact that they were keeping a stat, somebody's keeping a stat on how a player does after he gets glasses. They just found that hilarious. You should remind your son tomorrow, Scott, that he has drawn a walk against Mike Fires

while wearing glasses this season. So those are his updated numbers with glasses. There you. I wonder if Max Muncie's ever drawn a walk against Mike Fires. We've got to figure that out. I would venture to say... I would guess. Probably, yeah.

I think that would probably have with glasses. Not with classes, though. Yeah, that is fair. All right, that's it for rankings. We did have some pitchers' duels here on Wednesday. It's time to doodle. Mackenzie Gore up against Nick Povetta. Gore, six innings, one run, six strikeouts, tough luck loss.

Had 18 whiffs on 103 pitches here. And Nick Povetta on the other side, seven shots. out with a season high, with 10 strikeouts, which ties a season high, excuse me. Fastball was awesome here. Had 21 inches of IVB. Was having a pretty rough June before this one, so nice to see. But anything that stood out to you guys on Pavetta or McKenzie Gore. Just real quick to the last subject, Bome.

Alec Bome is the one I have ahead of Muncie in Roto, but not points. And that's because of the batting average discrepancy, the value of that category between the two formats. Okay. By the way, here's something you can tell your son. Max Muncie has never drawn a walk against Mike Fires. He was one for seven with three strikeouts and no walks against Mike Fires.

I thought our careers overlapped more than that. That's interesting. Different divisions. Yeah. Okay. You want us to talk about Povetta and Gore? Yeah. Look,

I value them about the same as I valued them for the past month. I know Povetta's had a. couple of bad starts recently, but a couple of great starts too. I think it's just variance. And I think he's still on track for a career season. Gore, the walks have been up the past couple starts, the strike percentage down. That's a little worrisome given his history, but a two-start sample. And that has otherwise gone pretty well, apart from the balls thrown. Not really raising alarm for me. Yep. For me, it's just I'm always going to be worried about Nick Povetta.

There's just, I feel like he could win like three Siongs in a row. And it's to be like, ooh, he had a bad start. He might be turned back into Nick Povetta. So it does do something to see him bounce back from a, from a couple of poor starts like that. All right. And the other pitchers duel we had George Kirby up against Joe Ryan. Kirby six innings, one run, three strikeouts, only had six whiffs on 90. pitches, just his second quality start in seven outings since returning.

You know, hasn't looked exactly himself yet. And Joe Ryan on the other side, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 93 pitches and kind of changed up the pitch mix here through more traditional sliders, which I thought was interesting for him. Anything else on Joe Ryan and George Kirby? Kirby doesn't seem quite right, apart from that 14 strikeout effort. I don't have any broad takeaway Or I guess that is a broad takeaway

I don't have any what's the opposite of broad narrow takeaways But it just just seems a little off The fact that he had to lean on the slider more And it's not even like it's a bat missing pitch for him Like the fastball is his best pitch But nothing's really been missing bats Except for when he missed a ton of bats in cup four 14 strikeouts.

So I think it just keep rolling with Kirby. You know, the big indicators are all fine, but I'd like to see better from him. Agreed. That was a very helpful little description. Yeah. Probably took up too much time. I'm sorry.

That's all good. Some pitching leftovers, some other pitching leftovers here. Zach Wheeler, Jack Flaherty, and Matthew Boyd, we got quality starts from each. And then Drew Rasmussen, in Ray's fashion, pitching very well against the Royals, five shutout innings, five strikeouts, pulled after 62 pitches.

Now, all right, you could just say, oh, this is the raise being the raise. Well, they let him throw 92 and 87 pitches respectively in his previous two starts. So, I don't know, why couldn't he go a sixth inning? I don't know. Kind of confusing for me. What do you guys think?

I, this is just what Drew Rasmussen's doing right now. now. And I, there's no reason to think it's going to change. She's had two Tommy John surgeries. He had, uh, internal brace surgery two years ago. I get it, but why wouldn't they, why wouldn't they make more sense if they would do like a pitch limit instead of an innings limit? I, maybe like they're, I don't know. If they limited him to 70 pitches and other, every other start, I would say, okay, this makes sense. But if he threw 92 in his last one and he's 62 in this one, it, I don't know. It just, well, it might be a third time through. the order thing, right?

It might be that. It might be a, our bullpen is more rested today and we don't, you know, feel the need to push it. I, it's frustrating, but, but there's no point complaining about it. There's no point asking questions about it because that's, it is what it is. Like, this is not, this was, I believe, his shortest outing of the season in terms of pitches. It is, yeah. But it wasn't like a huge outlier.

He's had some 70-ish pitch starts. I think that's just. this is just how the Rays are going to use him for forever, I think. And he's pitching well. He's awesome. Can't complain about what you've got. It's just if you play in a points league

or a quality start league, I mean, that might be the only place that you can complain about what your Raspisans doing. Still going six in six innings more often than Edward Cabrera. It is frustrating because a points league is his better format because he's a spark. Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

But I don't, I don't remember. really have any. Yeah. I mean, maybe, but because the starts tend to be shorter. Yeah.

No. And he's such a ratios, like ERA and Whip, he drew Rasmus and stands out in those. Did you mention, I don't know that he's clearly better in points. Did you mention Matthew Boyd? Yes.

He's annoying. As a person, he's probably fine. I don't want to make it sound like that. By annoying, do you mean Chris? Chris, do you mean good?

No. Well, I mean, maybe I don't know. But, like, in April he has this like what 270 ERA through his first six starts or whatever it was but the whip was terrible he wasn't really getting strikeouts and it looked fake then he goes out in May the ERA is actually a little higher but suddenly the whip drops to 1.04 in the month he gets 34 strikeouts and 28 innings with only two walks that's cool let's start to buy into Matthew Boyd and then here in June he has a 178 ERA with 18 strikeouts to six walks and 30 in a third innings. I don't know, man. I think this is a fluke. I think his current 265 ERA. I think Matthew Boyd can be useful. He's got a good walk rate, strike rate to bad average, and his quality of contact allowed seems like it'll be a bad average. I think he can be a useful fantasy

option. I also think his ERA the rest of the season will be at least a run higher than it currently is. That's fair. And a 370 ERA can be useful. I think he's pretty clearly a sell high candidate if anybody's buying, though. Yeah, I think you can try that right now. I just want to get a quick thought on Jack Flaherty. The walks and the hard contacts have just been consistent problems for him all season. I know earlier on the results were there. It's like really this last three-star stretch has kind of exacerbated things,

but really the walks and, you know, average, Xel velocity, barrel rate have been problems all season long for him. I think this is kind of the opposite of Ranger Suarez, where he's just not executing well. And I have faith in Chris Fetter and the Tigers pitching staff to figure it out. They already did once. But it's not like we have a super long track record here of Jack Flaherty being a must-start pitcher. So I've been giving Jack Flaherty a lot of benefit of the doubt.

He's remained a top 30 pitcher for me pretty much at every point this season. I'm getting closer to dropping him outside of the top 40. but you did say ahead of No, I have Mizoroski and Burns ahead from now. Okay. Yeah. There are.

Awesome. Hitting leftovers here. Marcus Semyon continues his bounce back June. He had three hits and is hitting 295 in the month with an 886 OPS. Ian Hap also having a big June. Only hitting 230, but nine homers. 20 RBI 890 OPS. Big game for Kyle Tucker, two for four with a sock and a shoe.

His 16th home run, his 19th Steve. and Jason Dominguez had himself a big game. We have not said that very often this year. Four for five with two doubles, two steals, and two runs scored. Like, where's the power? That's the biggest thing. It's only six homers for Dominguez and the barrel rate, X slug. It's all pretty bad for him.

So I don't know. I mean, the power was supposed to be the biggest thing for him, right? Like, this was supposed to be like a 60 grade plus power guy. And we haven't really seen that at all. in his major league career. I guess there was that week back in 2023, but... We'll always have that week. Other than that, I mean, it was only 18 games last season,

but he did not elevate the ball well. He didn't hit the ball hard in the air. This year, he is elevating the ball a little better, but he does not pull it very much. Which is weird because his pull rate was always so high. Yeah, and his quality of contact metrics are really mediocre. So I don't know. Worth reminding everyone, he's a rookie.

and a 22-year-old rookie at that. And it doesn't feel like he is because he's been the most high-dres. Two years prior to this, and we've been talking about him since he was 16 years old. But Jason Dominguez very early in his career and deserves all the grace that we normally show rookies,

especially since, again, he's not even playing every day. Yeah, he's down to 79% roster. Does that sound right for Dominguez? It seems a little high, actually. Yeah. I mean, given, like, I'd rather have. have barger, I'd rather. Who were we just talking about before?

Joe Adele. Joe Adele. Yeah, he's not very useful in a points league right now. All right, call to the bullpen for the Brewer. Trevor McGill struck out one for his 18th save for the Padres. Robert Suarez serving his two-game suspension. Adrian Morehon got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. Shruck out one for his second save.

For the athletics, Mason Miller, struck out two for his 15th save. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz, entered with two outs in the ninth. Two runners on. Four-run lead. got the final out for his 16th save. For the twins, Yohan Duran, struck out one for his 11th. For the Astros, Josh Hader, struck out one for his 21st.

For the Rays-P Fairbanks, clean ninth inning for his 14th save. And then this is where things get rocky for, and not Colorado. For the Marlins, Calvin Foshae got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs on a walk, two hit by pitches, and a hit. Took his fourth-blown save. but wound up with the win because on the other side for the Giants, Camillo DeVal got the 10th inning with the game tied, the Manfred Man on second.

He gave up four runs, three of those earned, took his second loss, and in 11 games in June, a 655 EHRA and a 218 whip. So basically coincides with him getting the job and then the number is just kind of plummeting here for Deval. Yeah, that's annoying. I wouldn't think much of it, except Randy Rodriguez

has been one of the best relievers in baseball, regardless of role this year. Interestingly, the last time they turned to him for a save because Camilla Deval needed a day off, that was like Randy Rodriguez's worst appearance of the year. He blew the save. But the overall numbers are still phenomenal. I'm not saying Camilla Deval is on the verge of losing that job yet,

but, you know, he's closer to losing. it than he was yesterday and every misstep the ice gets a little thinner. So just keep Randy Rodriguez in mind. All right, to stream or not to stream

for Thursday, we have Jeffrey Springs at the Tigers and Hayden Birdsong against the Marlins. And I think that's probably it. And I don't really like Springs very much. So yeah. That's, I think it's just bird song for me. All right. And then on Friday we have

Tomoyuki Sagano against Tampa Bay. I mean, they are a buzzsaw right now. Luis Ortiz against the Cardinals, Brian Beaux against the Blue Jays, Aaron Savali against the Giants. Jose. Is Nick Martinez actually starting? Because he's made two relief appearances since his last start. He's listed on MLB.com as a starter for Friday. That's the site. That's the probable pitchers list you can always count on this MLB.com. So, okay, fair enough. Keep going. Sorry, I interrupted you. All good. Jose Cantana gets the Rockies. That's their first game out of course field.

And Jake Irvin is at the Angels. Yeah, I think Kentana's the one who stands out. Brian Bayo against the Blue Jays with that that cutter that's worked for him the last two starts. Yep, those would be the two. Yeah. I think Ortiz and Jake Irvin could wind up with strikeouts in their matchups, but also some volatility involved with both of those guys as well. So, uh, you know, it's up to you. If you want, if you want strikeouts, go for it. But, you know, beware of ratios there with those two. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris.

I am Frank. Thanks always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five start rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.