Fantasy Baseball Today - Must Add Marsee! Hunter Greene's Return & Prospect Promotions (8/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Jakob Marsee is off to an insane start (2:25)! ... Matt Shaw has come alive in the second half (11:17). ... Welcome back, Hunter Greene (17:45). ... The Cubs are promoting Owen Caissie and the Mets are promoting Nolan McLean (20:35). ... News (26:35): Oneil Cruz went on the 7-day concussion IL. ... Let's have a waiver wire triple threat match (31:40). ... Any interest in these waiver wire hitters (36:55). ... Troy Melton and Shane Smith had solid starts against each other (41:30). ... These four hitters are coming alive in the second half (43:41). ... Pete Crow-Armstrong is struggling mightily (46:30). ... BUY OR SELL (50:06). ... Let's wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:02:05). 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. Jacob Marcy. Stud.

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, August 14th. I am Frank Stamphle, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. today on the show. Welcome back to Hunter Green, who looked great in his return. We have a few prospect promotions, some buy or sell, and much more. But let's begin. Oh, how about that? All right, Chris, the slugging Marlins.

Kick us off. Yeah, Jacob Marcy, who has a 14-14 OPS in his first 13 MLB games, was a pretty bonkers number. And this is a guy who was, fan graphs did rank him as a top 57 prospect for the Marlins, just barely in the top half. He was 27. They did a 50s. He was 27 in a decent Marlins organization.

When baseball prospectus ranked the top 500 prospects in baseball for Dynasty back in May, Jacob Marcy was not on the list. Damn. And he has a 14-14 OPS in his first 13 MLB games. I think you could say it comes as quite a shock. Although, frankly, it would come as quite a shock if he had been the number one prospect in baseball. Because I looked over the past 10 years, there have been 636 hitters who have made their major league debut and had at least 45 plate appearances in their rookie season. And six of them have had an OPS over 1,200 in their first 13 games with a minimum of 45 plate appearances.

So it happens about one every 100 MLB debuts. You get a performance this good. And there are some big names there. Peter Alonzo, Yorna Alvarez, those are superstars. The rest of the list is a little less impressive. Davis Schneider, remember his crazy stars? Austin Meadows, who was a very good player. I've actually comped Marcy to Davis-Shine.

Yeah. Austin Meadows was a pretty good player for a couple of years before injuries. James Outman had that one good, like, half-season. And then this is a fun. This is a fun throwback name. Remember Yarmine Mercedes? Oh, gosh.

His bonkers run, which is all to say that this is not proof that Jacob Marci is even a major league caliber player. You can have this kind of stretch and not be a great hitter, but he does a whole lot of things pretty well. I think really well. The thing that really stands out is,

one, the speed. He had 47 steals. He was leading all players at AAA in steals before his promotion. I would guess Chandler Simpson might have needed, like, another week to pass him. And he's got phenomenal plate discipline. nine strikeouts to nine walks in his first 48 plate appearances. And based on his AAA production, that is not a fluke.

He had a 16% walk rate and a 19% strikeout rate before getting promoted. And even when he was awful last year, like truly terrible, hit 200, he still had great plate discipline. And he has swung at just 10% of the pitches that he's faced out of the strike zone so far this season at the major league level. And he has made contact on 89% of the pitches that he has. swung at in the strike zone. Those are both elite marks. I don't think the 93 mile per hour average exit velocity entering today before he hit two home runs is real.

He had an 87 mile per hour average exit velocity coming into the season at AAA. But 87 miles per hour would probably be fine for a player with Jacob Marcy's skill set. It's about average. It's not like pitchers just need to can just get away with. pounding fastballs in the strike zone or, you know, burying it out of the zone. Like, he's a discerning hitter who can make you pay if you make a mistake. And he's hit 24% of his bad at balls in the air to the pull side at the major league level. Yeah.

It was 22% at AAA, which is how he managed 14 homers in 98 games despite middling raw power, which is all to say that I'm not even convinced Jacob Marcy as an average major league hitter moving forward. But I think there's a chance he's at least average. And if this isn't at least average player, I think you could be talking about a median outcome that looks like, I don't know, the good Lane Thomas years, maybe a little less power. I think Lane Thomas did have like a close to 30 homer season.

But, you know, like that Lane Thomas, T.J. Friedel, but maybe with a little more speed, those kind of outcomes. I think those aren't like particularly high-end outcomes for him. I think that's probably something like a mid-old. median outcome. And, you know, some of the higher end outcomes could be really fun for Jacob Marcy. So I think we're at the point where any league that counts steals as a separate category, he's got to be rostered. I think any, that's especially true in any league that counts on base percentage instead of batting average. Points league's probably not. I think it's going to be

hard to call him a top 36 outfielder or, you know, top 45, whatever, if you want to. to include the U-Tel spots, but it's not impossible. Yeah, certainly the upside is there. When I wrote about the five surprising hitter call-ups earlier this week, I had Jacob Marcy as, I gave him a low score in terms of my confidence in his legitimacy. I wasn't that confidence in his legitimacy in part because he doesn't hit the ball that hard on average, at least not historically. Obviously, he hasn't a short stint in the majors.

And in part because none of the prospect rankers ever gave him much credit. So low confidence score there for Marcy. But I gave him three out of four baseballs in potential utility for five-by-five league. Or I'm sorry, for points leagues. And I gave him three and a half out of four baseballs for potential utility in Roto leagues. So, I mean, he scored the highest of any of the five-hitter. call-ups as far as utility if things go right and what what could things look for how could things look for jacob marsi if they go right because you gave kind of the comp you gave was more of a

median comp right a high-end comp for jacob rcy i think would be like isaq paredes with speed esauk paredes with 40 steel potential you know and he'sac pared is a must-star player in his own right uh can i give you another name sure what jaron do you Rand did last year. 21 homers, 34 steals. Not a 111 runs. I'm trying to get comps that include how good of a walker he is. Yeah, that's,

Geron Duran doesn't have that. That's one place. And like, Spencer Steer walked 11% of the time, struck out 21% last year, 20 homers, 25 steals. I could see that. You're hoping for a better batting average. Yeah. The key is going to be how he angles the ball off the bat.

And he gave the polarites for Marcy and both the main. majors and minors. And if he continues to do that, then I think there's definitely a possibility. He's for real, obviously not to the extent that he's performed so far, but to the extent that he's going to remain a quality fantasy contributor. And at 50% rostered, I think that he's a must-add player just to see, just to see where this goes, right? As hot as he is in his first 13 career Major League games. I mean, I'm looking at some names that are more than 70% rostered on CBS guys like Spencer Steer, Jung Hu Lee, Lordus Guriel, Zach McIntyre, Jason Dominguez, Cetrick Mullins. Like, yeah, I would drop any of those names for Jacob Marcy just to

see where this goes, right? Like, you don't, you almost want to protect it from somebody else getting him just in case he's like a league winner down the stretch, right? Like, obviously he's not going to maintain this production, but I mean, maybe he's just really, really good. the rest of the season. I mean, you could take it further in shallower leagues with the ample waiver wires, like drop Ceydon Raphael for him in a points league. I told someone earlier. There's not a lot of downside risk to that.

I said, Elliot Ramos. Someone asked me about Ramos. I said, yeah, I dropped for Jacob Marcy. Willier-A-R-R-Rews, I feel like it's been pretty cold for a while. So that's another one. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Again, that was Jacob Marcy, who is just tearing the cover off the ball right now. I don't know if we ever read off what he did in this game. So I'll just remind people. four for five with two homers, a double, steel, seven RBI. He had 22 fantasy points on CBS, which is the equivalent of like a really good start for a starting pitcher. So it's a pretty crazy game there for him. Scott, let's go over to you for your player of the night. My player of the night is Matt Shaw, who had a tame performance by comparison.

But he got a sock in a shoe, one for three with the home run and the stolen base there. really it's more about what he's done since the all-star break and that's look like the rookie of the year candidate he was always supposed to be 323 batting average eight home runs four steals an 1147 oPS so this is the match shall we saw in the minors this is the match shall we thought we were getting what's changed well a lot's changed actually so we've been railing against the exit velocity readings for Matt Shaw this whole time. They are dreadful average exit velocity, first percentile, 84.4 miles per hour. That's for the season. But in the second half, it's 88.2 miles per hour, not including today's game. It may have gone up with the additional home run. So up four miles per hour in the second half, average exit velocity.

And 88.2 is not amazing. But Chris was saying Jacob Marcy could make 87 work. I think Shaw could make 88 work, especially because the other big thing that's changed for him, that pull air rate, 29% in the second half. That's elite. For the season, it's about 17%, which is slightly above average. It's going to need to be closer to elite for him. him to be the power source he projected as with even with the 88 mile per hour at exit velocity,

but you know what he's doing it? And it makes sense that he's doing it, given his pedigree, given his minor league track record. And I think given the state of third base, which has been, it's been, it's probably been, I mean, second base doesn't have as many high-end threats, but second base, I feel like, goes deeper as far as useful options goes. Third base is the shallowest in terms of useful players. So if you don't have one of those studs, or even suffering without Austin Riley or Royce Lewis has never lived out to your expectations,

I know Matt Chapman has fallen off a lot. I think Matt Shaw, he could be your fix and it could be a permanent fix. This might be the start of a great career for Matt Shaw. And he just needed that first half to kind of find his footing. I know he had talked at one point about how he kind of made some change. to his swing in anticipation of higher velocity in the majors. And he may have just, he may have just kind of put himself in a bad spot to start out his career. But he seems to be on the right track now.

Yeah, it's a position that definitely falls off. Once you get outside the top 10 or so at third base, Matt Shaw, 59% rostered. Another thing I like is that he's only sat twice since the trade deadline when they acquired Willie Cashrow. We didn't know exactly how that playing time would be divvied up. And Matt Shaw is still playing a lot and they need him because a lot of that Cubs lineup is not hitting outside of Matt Shaw right now. So I'll run through a few names here that have emerged lately or, you know, just guys that

we've talked about recently. Would you take Matt Shaw or Colson Montgomery? I think Matt Shaw. I take Matt Shaw. I think there, like, it's a broader skill set. And I have more trust in him sustaining what he's done recently. Colson Montgomery, you know, you can understand him having this sort of home run binge because he can hit the ball much harder than Shaw can.

but when the home runs slow down, which they will have to, I'm not sure what else is there for Montgomery. Yeah, the one thing I would note with Josh, it's a really small sample size. And that's obviously true of any since the All Star Break sample size. But in his case, it's 53 balls in play with the higher pull rate, 49 coming into today. So that's what the pull rate number was based on. he has sorry I had the number he hasn't played every day he's missed a couple of games

and he has been pulled from a couple of games early he's come into a couple of games as a pinch hitter so he's something less than a full-time player so it's 65 played up or 68 played appearances whatever since the all-star break I agree

shawl over Colson Montgomery that that feels everything that Scott said there, it's still a very small sample size for a guy who was pretty bad in the first half. Totally, yeah, but I just think with the prospect pedigree that he has, obviously we should be encouraged by what he's done here,

albeit in a small sample. Two other names, would you take Matchaw over Noelvie Marte? I believe... Marte did have a Little League home run today. Did he really? No, you guys didn't say it was very funny. I saw the one in the Orioles game. I didn't see Marquis.

Now, I like Marte a lot too, and he's been hitting great. So what he's actually did today, two for four, but that makes him 10 for 21 with a home run and a double in his past five games. So he's really taking to that right field spot for the Reds. Of course, maintains third base eligibility, which is why you're asking the question. I like Marte. I hesitated there. I would take them both over Colson Montgomery, but I think the added speed up. element for Shaw has me leaning his direction.

Is Marte playing every day? I guess so. Last I looked he was. I believe he is. Yeah. Austin Hayes has started to lose some playing time there because he's scuffling. The wrench that's been

thrown in is that Miguel Anduhar is like crushing the ball for them. So they're finding ways to get him in the lineup. But Marte has set out two times since two times in August so far and nothing before that. So maybe like every fifth or six games,

something like that, Marte might sit out here. And I should probably point out like Marte's not a zero for steals. I just think Shaw's better. And last one here, would you take Matchaw over Carlos Correa, who has gained third base eligibility?

Yeah. I think probably. In Points League, I might go Correa, but they're both pretty fringing in points leagues anyway. All right, a big welcome back to Hunter Green, who looked great in his routine. turn against the Phillies. Six shutout innings with six strikeouts. Zero walks had 16 whiffs on 85 pitches. Slider looked nasty as always. Nine of his 16 whiffs came on that pitch. Velocity

looked fine. His fastball maxed out at 1001.2 miles per hour. Actually mix in a few more splitters in the start as well, so that was pretty interesting. When he's been on the mound, he's been awesome this year. It's three earned runs or fewer in 11 of 12 starts. And overall a 247 ERA, a 0.93 whip. there's not really much else to add here outside of welcome back we're happy you're back but we could have a legit top 12 SP rest of the way here in hunter green we sure could it's exactly what you want to see and must start going forward i did notice the increased splitter usage on his rehab assignment as well so it was interesting to see that carry over um it's been a pretty good pitch for him and gives hitters another look. So I don't hate it. All right. Download and

follow our 10 minute podcast, FBT Express wherever you listen to this podcast. And big thanks to those watching live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube as well. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's run through the news and notes. I mentioned up top we have two prospect promotions to talk about. The Cubs are promoting their top outfield prospect, Owen Casey, on Thursday. He is 23 years old, a second round pick back in 2020, having a big season in the minors, hitting 289 with a 389 on base, 22 home runs, 955 OPS, and hitting the ball extremely hard. Very exciting prospect. Where will he play? Yeah, well, he'll play Thursday. Now, in Toronto. The timing of this is funny, I guess,

is the word I'll use to describe it for a couple of different reasons. One, it is the day before will be at the 45 days left point, which means the day before. If the Cubs just waited one more day to call up Casey, then they would for sure preserve his rookie eligibility next year. Seems like the reason they're calling him up Thursday is the last game of series in Toronto. He grew up in a Toronto suburb. Very sweet of them to do that. but it does mean they're probably going to send Casey back down at some point so that he doesn't get that 46th day of service time

that'll cost him rookie eligibility for next year. So I imagine he'll be in the lineup since this is kind of being done mostly for sentimentality reasons. But I think the playing time will be sporadic for however long he sticks around. He'll just kind of sub in and out. He's a good prospect. Don't get me wrong. I mean, the full season numbers are great.

Since the start of June, Owen Casey, that's C-A-I-S-S-I-E, by the way. Owen Casey, 343 batting average with 15 homers and 11-18 OPS. Strikeout rates down to like 19% in that stretch, too. Yeah, I mean, that's good because most of his minorly career was up near 30. He hits the ball very hard, as you pointed out, Frank. That's always been the case. Like Owen Casey as a prospect has always stood out most for his power potential. It's just that potential was the key word there for some reason he wasn't turning it into home runs.

But that's changed this year. And he is definitely deserving of this opportunity. It's just how much of an opportunity is it really given the state of the Cubs lineup. I wonder if like Kyle Tucker's been so bad, say Suzuki's been struggling. Ian Hap hasn't been great. I do wonder if we get like an IL stint from one of those guys just to kind of give him a soft reset and give Casey some runway but other than that I think it's very unlikely he makes an impact

so if you have the roster spot to play with I really like Owen Casey as a prospect yeah but I probably like the 15 team Roto leagues is all I'd be looking to add him in it just would not make sense for him to keep him for them to keep him up the rest of the season It just, you know, the problem is if you send him down, you got to send him down for at least 10 days. This is in a situation where they could send him down for one day and then call him back up. It's not actually how it works. Unless somebody goes on the IEL during that period. And that would also, that would trigger an immediate grievance and probably cause some friction if they did that.

Like I saw someone speculate, oh, they'll just send him down two days before the end of the season. And it's like, that's asking for a grievance. teams never lose grievances, so it doesn't matter, but it's not like a precedent. That's kind of like, it's awfully sweet of them to do this because they could just wait the day. Yeah. And then have no concerns about any grievances being raised. And the Cubs would never, you know, manipulate service time. It's not something they've ever done in their history.

The Chris Bryant situation, they lost that grievance, even though that was like the most obvious example of service manipulation in Major League history. history. Yeah. So yeah. The Mets are also calling up pitching prospect Nolan McLean to start Saturday against the Mariners. And he is a 24-year-old prospect, third round pick back in 2023. And this year in the minor is a 245 ERA 113 whip, tons of strikeouts. He also walks quite a bit. Any deep league interest in Nolan McLean. Yeah. Really interesting talent, I think. Yeah. He is. And the strikeout rate is pretty modest there for the season, but it really took off. Let me see if I can pull up the number real quick. His final, Nolan McLean's final starts at AAA.

Let's see, 52 strikeouts in 37 and two-thirds innings. That comes out to 12.4K per 9. Pretty good. Yeah. And he's had an elite ground ball rate the whole time, about 55%. So you love that combination of missing bats and keeping. being the ball on the ground. He's not a big, he's not the biggest name prospect,

although his stock has obviously gone up this year. Brandon Sprote, who came in as a much bigger name, came into the season as a much bigger name, was also in the running to start this game. And he's got off to a horrible start of AAA, but he's turned his season around too. I think there's a good chance we'll see him at some point over the last six weeks here.

But McLean right now getting the first nod, and I think absolutely worth a look. I can't think of a format where you want to be looking to add an interesting starting pitcher. So I think that applies for all formats. He was the number 34 prospect in baseball and baseball prospectus' midseason update. Nice. And he was 53 for fan graphs. And baseball prospectus said his sweeper might be the best pitch, the best swing and miss pitch in the minors right now.

So that's pretty neat. All right. Again, yeah, that is Nolan McLean. definitely has more utility than Owen Casey at this point, but we'll see what happens with that Cubs situation. A couple other news items here. O'Neill Cruz was placed on the seven-day concussion IL. He collided with his teammate, Jack Swinsky,

in the outfield on Tuesday. Cruz has been struggling for a long time now as well. Since the start of June, hitting 187 with a sub-600 OPS, 32% strikeout rate. So I don't know how long he'll be on the IL. Yes, seven days, but concussions can be tricky. Just hoping that he can come back.

back at some point and finish the season strong following all these struggles here. Josh Hader will seek a second opinion on his left shoulder and will be sidelined a little longer than the two weeks. That's according to the Astros and of course they would never ever lie about injuries. We know that about Houston. Manager Joe Espada said he's not naming anyone for the ninth inning. Well, we had a save opportunity right away here on Wednesday. Bennett Sousa entered with two outs in the seventh inning.

Two runners on, a four-run lead to face Roman Anthony. so left on left, he struck him out there for the eighth to face the heart of the lineup, another clean inning there. And then Brian Abraeu got the ninth. He allowed two hits but picked up his first save of the season. I still lean that Abraeu will probably get the majority here. But I can see them mixing and matching if there's lefties coming up in the ninth. Maybe they save Sousa for that kind of situation.

Yeah, I mean, they could. And, you know, obviously he's not officially naming the closer. It's rare for a manager to officially name a closer. these days, so I don't read into that a lot. Part of the issue is that apart from Abraeu, the best three relievers otherwise are left-handers. But, you know, with Hater there, that meant the best four relievers other than Abraeu were left-handers. And yet, Abraeu was pretty firmly the eighth-th inning guy. It's not like they were mixing and matching with him much then.

So I think he's probably the closer. And he could be a top-10 closer the rest of the way. depending how long, how much time here misses, which is up in the air but doesn't sound good. Yeah. And Abraeu is 46% rostered. So obvious Josh, a hater replacement. If you know, you're looking for saves, we've talked about a lot of names recently. Obviously like Randy Rodriguez, Bednar and Kate Smith are ahead of Brian Abraeu,

but then he's probably the next one up just in terms of upside and what he can provide here down the stretch. Max Muncie of the Dodgers was scratched Wednesday due to a right side soreness. he'll undergo testing. Yordon Alvarez will take live BP this weekend, and if that goes well, he should be cleared for a rehab assignment soon thereafter. Ronald Acuna went through a full workout on Tuesday, and Brian Snitker said,

Acuna likely won't need a rehab assignment before being activated. Sounds like he could return this weekend. Austin Riley still felt discomfort in his abdomen while throwing on Tuesday. George Springer has cleared concussion protocol and will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. Wyatt Langford was out of the lineup Wednesday, due to forearm tightness.

The Rangers do not believe it's serious, but they will have imaging done just in case. Sticking with the Rangers, Adolius Garcia went on the aisle with a sprained left ankle. Evan Carter was recalled and actually had a pretty good game here. We'll talk about him in a bit. Matt Chapman was out of the lineup due to right-hand soreness. Bryce Terrang back in the lineup after leaving Tuesday with a finger injury.

Per Brian Hoke. Paul Goldschmidt has a low-grade knee sprain with inflammation. According to the Yankees, Gullochman said he hopes it will be, quote, short-term absence and that he can avoid the IL. But if he does go on the IL, obviously that is good news for Ben Rice, just continuing to play every day.

And I think Ben Rice has played seven games in a row between catcher first base, that whole situation. So they like what they're getting from him right now and Austin Welles has been struggling a lot. Dylan Cruz will officially return on Thursday. He's been out since mid-May with an oblique injury. 68% rostered. Is he just a must add where available?

Or kind of let's see how it plays out in three outfielder leagues for Dylan Cruz? Yeah, I think you said it right. And so 68% he's probably rostered in every five outfielder league already. Some three outfielder leagues probably give him an edge in the categories leagues with the smaller outfields since he could be a big stolen base source. But he was batting under. 200 for the time he was healthy and had been dropped in quite a few leagues even before he went on the IL. So probably a wait and see situation. Still like the talent for Cruz though.

And some Orioles updates, Tyler O'Neill, who is on the aisle with right wrist inflammation could be out until September. Colton Kouser will not return from the seven-day concussion IL when first eligible on Thursday. And Zach Eflin will undergo back surgery on Monday and is expected to be sidelined four to eight months. And if we push the latter part of that timeline, eight months would bring us to the middle of April of next season. And he's a free agent. So that kind of throws another wrench in the mix there for Zach Eflin. All right, guys, I don't think we've done this at all this season, but let's have a little waiver wire triple threat match. All right, I've got three shallow league outfielders. Three men enter. Only one can win.

Sal Freelich, another big game. Two for three with two walks, four runs, and his 18th stolen base. He is having a big second half here. And just a really solid season overall. He's 73% rostered. Ramon Luriano continues to hit three for four with his 17th home run. 12 games with the Padres. 333, two homers, two doubles, two triples, 10 RBI and a 1,000 OPS, 67% rostered. And Jurekson Profar, really picking things up as well. Three for five with three RR. RBI and a steel, and so far in August, 2.79, three homers, three steals, 13 walks, and an OPS over a thousand. So your three contestants, ProFar, Luriano, and South Freelik, who emerges from the triple threat match? I want to first apologize to Jurexon ProFar.

I wasn't familiar with your game when on Sunday Frank brought you up and I was very dismissive and said he should probably be dropped. at this point. He was struggling for a while there, but he just picked it up recently. Yeah, and the overall numbers, you know, still don't look great,

but he was at the end of a 40-point week in head-to-head leagues. So probably not a good time to say, yeah, should probably be dropped. I'm, of course,

familiar with ProFar's game. I was doing the Shaq meme thing. You had to be there. Anyway, yeah, I think batting leadoff for the Braves, getting on base a ton. Like,

I hate to split the baby here. but pro far clearly for me in points leagues he's 3.22 even prior to today's game where it went up 3.22 head-to-head points per game that puts him a little ahead of like randy a rose arena in point per game average so certainly for that format but in roto i think i have to go loriano just because i mean he's been so good for terrible play discipline so that holds him back in points leagues but he's been so good for so long, let me see if I can pull up the 300, last 365 days. We're now at a 298 batting average 23 homers, 880 OPS. And that's in just 117 games over those 365 days. So not a full season's worth, 23 homers in it, 880 OPS. I mean, it just keeps getting better. It's only gotten better since he joined the Padres.

So one thing I will say that I'm pretty surprised about with Jerks and Pro Far is the five stolen bases in 40 games. that's like a 20 steel pace which would be I would get him he had what 11 last year something like that did he even have that much

sounds right so that's pretty surprising and gives him a nice little boost in a Roto league 10 steals last year okay yeah I still think I agree I'd go Lauriano ahead of him but

that does make it a little less clear cut and then Freelik really just weird because I don't think he's 900 OPS bat like he's been in the second half. There's some playing time risk there just because they have so many similar guys. So I think I would put him third.

All right. He's kind of Nico Horner of the outfield, I feel like, which is Stephen Kwan. He's Stephen Kwan. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, so like I think he's part of this discussion. I think he belongs here. I don't want to be dismissive of him. but he is

I agree with Chris he probably brings up the rear and what if Jacob Marcy just comes running in late with a steel chair does he just kind of knock everybody out and take the title here in a Roto League I might be inclined

to just take him and just do the I'll admit that it's a little bit of a mystery box thing with him right what makes it hard to answer is that Roto League In theory, he's the best because of how many steals he could give you. In theory, he's the best in both, I guess, because of all the walks he can give you. But it's how certain are you of that?

It gets back to that low confidence level I have in Marcy. And roto leagues are deeper. You can't afford to miss. You can't afford to drop Ramon Luriano in a roto league. You go out in a points league. Who cares? There's plenty of other outfielders. out there. So,

I think I would put Marcy behind both Luriano and Roto and behind ProFAR and points, but he might be second for me among these players in both of those formats. All right. So I don't think we have a clear winner for the triple threat match, but obviously lots of analysis. So make your decision based on what league is playing. Jacob Marcy came in with a chair and they had to decue the whole thing. It was a mess. Yeah, yeah.

It was no contest there between that. group, but all obviously interesting players and guys that are playing well right now. Any waiver wire interest in these hitters? Two Rangers. Evan Carter returned with a nice game from the IL, two for four with a double and his 13th steel and should get plenty of run with Adela Garcia on the IL. And Jake Berger launched a home run here, his 12th of the season. He's only started three of six games since coming off the IL, but we know that he is someone that can get hot in a hurry. Any interest in the two Rangers? More Carter than Burger.

The speed has been really surprising for Evan Carter. 13 steals and less than 200 plate appearances. Did not expect that. And he still has a good approach at the plate. It's just he's just not hitting for power. And I'm not sure where that's going to come from. So I still think there's some long-term upside, but I think Carter's only really a deeper league rhodo player.

All right. And then some deep league names here. Joey Ortiz got in on the fun here. The Brewers, by the way, what do you know? Another Slug Fest, another win. They are undefeated in the month of August. Ortiz in the month hitting 391 with seven doubles, 12 runs, 11 RBI, and two steals. Miguel Anduhar is raking with the Reds, two for four with his ninth home run,

hitting 370 with three homers and a 1247 OPS so far with them. And a big game for Graham Pauley, who plays for the Marlins. He went four for four with his fourth homer, has three of his four home. in the past six games. And he was a prospect of note a couple of years ago, had a huge 2023, not so good last year, came over from the Padres in the Luis Arise trade a few years ago. So very deep league names here, but do any catch your eye?

Joey Ortiz, Miguel Anduhar, Graham Polly. I think Anduhar I probably have the most interest in. He's begun to inherit the bats that Austin Hayes is losing. Now that he's fallen into a pretty deep funk. And you always like to see a hitter with kind of fringy power go to Cincinnati presents an opportunity. Most Homer-friendly ballpark presents an opportunity for him to do more with that. It's, you know, it is a deep league sort of recommendation. We're talking well below the Jacob Marseys and jerks and pro Fars and all of them.

but, you know, if he's going to play this much, And Dohar with Cincinnati as his home part, there's a chance he's useful. He has 578 play appearances over the past two seasons with 13 homers and a 293 batting average. That, like, I could see a World Warma, Miguel and Doohar on the Reds as like a 15 homer guy who helps you in batting average. I could see that.

I don't think it's a super high priority ad, but yeah, I think he's interesting. Let's take our final break. When we return, I have two deep league waiver wire pitchers, four hitters who are reminding us that it's a long season, and they might finally be coming alive. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Two deep league waiver wire pitchers, Troy Melton got a spot start here for the Tigers, and he pitched well again at the White Sox. Five shutout innings, one hit, zero, walk, six strikeouts.

But I don't think he's going to get another start. I could be wrong about that, but it sounds like they were just giving their starters an extra day of rest and Shane Smith looked pretty good on the other side five shutout two hits three walks five strikeouts 15 whiffs on 92 pitches any deep league interest in Troy Melton or Shane Smith I think Melton's super interesting I just don't know if he's like everyone's fine in their rotation and so I'm not sure they're gonna pull anyone from the rotation, but he's stretched out so any injury in the next week or two could give him an opportunity. And they're pitchers, they get hurt.

So it's entirely possible that I would say it's pretty likely that an opportunity comes up at some point between now and the end of the season. I think he's a name just to remember for last year, next year too. Just like tuck that in your back pocket and hopefully Troy Melton gets a shot because, you know, he's, he looked pretty good. It's a really small sample, but the minor league numbers are good there as well. could just be more of like a long-term name there in Troy Melton. Shane Smith, I still think there's talent here. You know, he got a bunch of whiffs. I know the Tigers lineup is scuffling quite a bit.

It's just, you know, will he get wins? Is he going to go deep into his starts? Probably not. But he's better. Yeah, I mean, this is two great starts in a row after a rough patch there for Shane Smith, where I was completely out because, you know, there's so little margin for air for a white sucks pitcher to begin with. I noticed that in both of these starts,

the previous one was against the Mariners. So two likely playoff-off-bound teams. Fastball's played really well. He's gotten a lot of whiffs with the fastball on both of those starts. And I'm not really sure why. And it's a sample of two, so maybe there's not a good reason why. But something to keep an eye on for Shane Smith.

I agree. I think there's talent here, even if he's not particularly useful at the moment. Four hitters reminding us that it is a long season. Just last week, I basically buried Brian Reynolds. Well, guess what? He's back from the dead. Three for four with a double dong, five RBI here,

and looking much better in the second half, hitting over 300, 910 OPS. William Contreras, two more hits, two more walks, four RBI, updated second half numbers for him, 323, six homers, 22 RBI, and the 963 OPS. Michael Harris, Scott, how about that, Braves, what was this? like third or fourth inning here against the Mets. That was crazy stuff.

That was their first nine run inning. I believe this is right. Since 2020, the famous 29 to 9 game in 2020. Updated second half numbers from Michael Harris, by the way. 366, seven home runs, a 1078 OPS. And Marcel Ozuna got in on the fun, hit another home run. Two for four with his 20th home run, three RBI. Last 14 games for him.

302, seven. homers, 17 RBI, and OPS over 1,200. So this is your latest reminder. It's a really long season. And these four, I don't know, maybe they just start to figure it out over the final two months. Well, like, Brian Reynolds, and I guess I finally waived the white flag on Brian Reynolds when last we talked about him, which kind of reminds me of how Matt Olson's 2024 played

out, where it was like, he was bad for. two-thirds of the season and you didn't really see a reason why he should be bad. So of course you kept waiting for him to come around and he finally did in August, which was at the point where I decided it was too late to keep holding out that hope. But it's never too late to hold out hope, I guess, at least not when a player has that lengthy of a track record. So Reynolds is probably must roster again. and there's a very good chance he just keeps this going through the end of the season. Harris, same thing.

I've pointed out how Harris changed his stance to the one he had in the minors, holding his hands up by his ear, after early in his major league career dropping it in front of his chest the way Acuna does. And it seems like it's helped fix whatever opposing pitchers were exploiting against him prior to that change. And he's mashing again. I've made the joke multiple times this season that Pekar Armstrong had had space jammed. He'd monstarred Michael Harris and Michael Harris got it back. He touched the basketball because Pekar Armstrong's terrible now.

Michael Harris is red hot. So clearly there is only room for one of them to be good at a time. Keep that in mind moving forward. There's a lot of, it's so funny. It's so funny because. like you could not say anything negative about Pete Crow Armstrong. A month ago. Well, three months ago, you could not say anything about Peacrow Armstrong.

You would be burned at the stake for doing so. He was God's gift to baseball. And he has two bad weeks, two bad weeks. And now Cubs fans are like, bench Pete Crow Armstrong. Like, what? Like, too bad, like, it's not even, it's not even that I'm bothered by them, their reactions earlier in the season. I'm over it, you know, clearly, Pete Crow Armstrong sustained it for much, much longer than I expected them to. It's more like normalized not caring what happens over a two-week sample.

So this is one of those things with baseball fans that I just like, I see some people who are like living and dying with every day, every game. And they're like, I'm miserable, the Yankees. And it's like, is this baseball, brother? It's 162 of them. This is the beauty. The beauty of it is that you're not supposed to get upset. You just let the low level resentment build over the course of a full season. Look, I think that's the best enjoyed from a 30,000 foot view.

I've always said, like you, if you're too invested in the day to day, you're going to drive yourself crazy. And you're not going to be, you're not going to give very good analysis either. I will say with regards to p. Kramshung, there are certain players, Giancarlo Stan, when he was the best player in Marlins' history, used to get this. There are some players that when it goes wrong for them, it goes so wrong that they look like they don't belong. And that's what Pekar Armstrong's going through right now.

He's got 15 strikeouts and 42 August played appearances. He has a 193 OPS. 199 would be a bad batting average. it would be a worse on base percentage. It's a horrible OPS. So it's also one of those things where it's just like, I understand that reaction for pre-carmsdron because he's just, he's going to be that kind of guy, I think,

where it's just his approach is so bad that when it's not working for him, he is going to be just a disaster. Were you done with your thought? Yeah, it's just he's always going to be streaky, but he's going to be streaky in a way that's really aesthetically unpleasing. And that's something I used to say a lot. I don't know why I stopped saying it.

I guess I just said it too much. But now it's been a long time since I've said it. That profile, the poor plate discipline guy, which of course Harris fits into this category as well. Like part of the reason I hate investing in them, and they're more common now so it's hard to avoid, but I used to hate investing in them so much. I'd avoid them like the plague because when,

they're slumping, as every hitter does, they're giving you literally nothing. There's no other, there's a fallback plan, yeah. Yeah, and it's so you lose faith in them, you cut them, you, it just feels like you're, you can't trust yourself to manage that properly. And so Crow Armstrong's going through a stretch like that. Like, look at what Crow Armstrong did last September.

It was similarly horrible after a great August. And that's part of the reason I was so far out on him coming into the year. and obviously he bounced back from that. He's going to bounce back from this too. All right, let's quickly run through some buy or sell questions that I have for a bunch of pitchers here. Seth Lugo is potentially going through a rough stretch right now. Four innings, seven runs, six earned four walks to two strikeouts, two homers allowed. That's two very bad starts in a row.

But even if you look at the six starts in the second half, 742 ERA 178 whip for Seth Lugo. So buy or sell. Lugo is falling apart. I've only been saying it would happen for 17 months. So I don't know. Like I had kind of resigned myself to just being completely wrong about Seth Lugo forever. Because I'm going to stick with my process.

And my process is his peripherals were bad and he was going to be bad. And up until a month ago, that was extremely untrue about Seth Lugo. I buy it because I've never bought him. him as an ace or anything close to it. This year, his strikeout right went down, his walk rate went way up, and his quality of contact got worse. And up until like three starts ago, he had a lower ERA than he did last season. Yeah, I don't understand, but I think he's a four ERA pitcher.

Kate Horton had another strong start this time at the Blue Jays, five and two thirds, one hit, one run, eight strikeouts, 11 whiffs on eight. 82 pitches and five starts in the second half for him. It's a 0.32 ERA, a 0.71 whip here for Cade Horton by Orsel that he is a must roster pitcher. He's already kind of close. He's 78%. 0.32 ERA is somehow like more impressive than a zero ERA for me. I don't know. It's just so hard to hit a number below 0.5 like that or even below one. Is he must roster? You know, I saw this line.

Eight strikeouts in five and two-thirds, 11 whiffs on just 82 pitches. Okay, he missed a lot of bats. Surely he faded his fastball finally and featured that second and third pitch, slider and change-up, I think it is, which both have incredible whiff rates. The fastball's not very good. Surely Horton faded that fastball, and that's why he got so many strikeouts. But now, still threw it about 50% of the time, still threw it too much. So I don't know how sticky the strikeout gains in this one were, and the lack of strikeouts was part of the reason I was really skeptical of what he was doing prior to this start.

I stopped short of calling him must roster. I think it's fine to roster him, but I'm also not really buying what he's doing right now. I do think he's in need of arsenal changes to really shine. It depends on if your trade deadline has. past. If it has not, then he is a must roster player because you'd be trying to trade Cade Horton. I like the talent here and obviously he had a lot of prospect pedigree. I do think that he's going to be limited at some point. He just hasn't thrown that many innings and he has an extensive injury history. So he's already been limited. I mean, he looks really good.

He was cruising and he threw 82 pitches today. Yeah, and I think his last two starts, he was right around 70. Mm-hmm. So he did, I did not flag him when I wrote about 18 pitchers who were coming He only threw like 30 innings last year. Restrictions. Yeah, you're right. I don't know why he slipped by me. I only spent hours and hours narrowing down the list of 18. You know, there's only infinite pitchers you have to go through.

Yeah, yeah. Next up. Anything else you want to add? Kate Horton, that is a concern for him workload. Yeah. Next up, Brandon Woodruff, solid, but apparently on a pitch count here, four shutout innings with four strikeouts, only through 65 pitches. and apparently that was by design

because Woodruff was making his first start on four days rest this season. By or sell that you should be worried about Woodruff's limitations down the stretch. So apparently, because I was searching like what happened to your, why was this fastball down 1.2 miles per hour considering it's already down 2.5 miles per hour from previously. How much can you lose and still be good? Question we've been asking for Woodruff all along. This was the first time. Oh, you mentioned it already.

Four days of rest. You mentioned it already. I'm sorry. Yeah. So, like, I don't think that's going to happen very often is the point. The Brewers, I know they're the best team in baseball, and I know that they haven't lost in, like, eight weeks or whatever it is. Their pitching is weird. I've got, like, a lot of questions about there.

Just because they've got so many guys with limitations, so many guys who've dealt with injuries. Like, I was just thinking today, like, with Jake. Mr. Misarowski likely to make one rehab start and then come back, shouldn't they just move him to the bullpen and use him in like two-inning bursts and have him be a killer down the stretch and in the playoffs? But then it's like, well, who's the fifth starter? I guess they could call up Chad Patrick, but then you've got Jose Cantana and Chad Patrick in a rotation. Tobias Myers made a start recently.

Yeah, couldn't. Yeah, like how much can you trust Brandon Woodruff in the playoffs? I guess nobody throws six in the playoffs anymore, so it doesn't matter. it's a so they still got some weird questions I guess yeah I don't think I don't think Mizorowski's going to move to the bullpen yet I would guess that's the role he pitches in in the playoffs

but I do think I'm gonna go I'm gonna make a bowl prediction we don't see another five inning start for Mizorowski this year I would guess we'll see at least one or two just because like Drew Rasmussen's thrown six innings two starts in a row at like 80 like 76 pitches so like yeah he's He could just be super efficient.

I mean, that is RAS wasn't is super efficient. I don't think Mizorowski is not, but it only needs to happen once is what I'm saying, you know? Okay. But yes, I think. I'm going bold. I think he'll, I'd be surprised if we saw like 95 pitches and any starts for Mizorowski. As expected, Gavin Williams had a rough outing after his no-hit bid last week. He was facing the Marlins.

He allowed four runs over three innings, two homers allowed. Remember, he threw 126 pitches in that start against the Mets last week. But I'm here to tell you that he's a two-star pitcher next week, or at least looks like it right now. Buy or sell that despite this bad start, you should start Gavin Williams next week. Yeah, I mean, we knew not to start him coming up. I think I did make the mistake of starting him in league. But we knew not to start him coming off that big workload in the near no hitter. I'll remind everyone that his previous six starts where he wasn't coming off.

huge pitch count 163 are a 0.93 whip 9.5k per nine I am not totally confident he's figured it out but I think him with two starts coming up that six of his last seven have been so good and he's Gavin Williams who has obviously huge prospect pedigree great stuff yeah I think I think you got to start him with you want a bold prediction Sure. From the near no-hitter against the Mets on, Gavin Williams will have a 5-plus ERA the rest of the season. Spicy. He has since June 1st, entering this start, he had a 236 ERA entering this start since June 1st with a 9.3% K-minus walk ratio,

which would be the eighth worst mark in baseball for the full season. This is a gigantic fluke. I still think he's super talented. I think he has extremely not figured it out and it's been a huge fluke. That is my hot Gavin Williams take. I have zero faith in this dude. Wow.

He has changed the pitch mix lately. I know what you're saying about June. I feel like there were more walks in those starts. Right. Like if you take it back far enough, the walk rate looks worse. Yeah. The three starts prior to this one,

it wasn't an issue. But there are some things that are going to regress. I mean, that six-star stretch, 170 BAB, 95% strand rate. Like, those things are just not sustainable over a long period of time. So I think there's a little bit of give and take. Obviously, he's not a sub 2ERA guy,

but I do think, you know, in the second half, Gavin Williams has started to figure some things out here. Yeah, I think he had three starts with good control, and he has a 12% walk rate since July 1st, if you want to go with that. Like, I just, I don't see it. It's like a 12% K-minus walk rate since July 1st, which is better. Still bad.

That's still a bad mark. Yeah, there were some high walk starts in there. So, like, it just depends what you think is going on with him developmentally. If you think he's kind of a finished product and then you'll look at the larger sample. But if you think he's still making strides, then you're more inclined to look at the smaller sample. Let's quickly run through these last three, Drew Raspison, a rare quality star. or maybe it's not rare. He's done it two starts in a row.

By or sell that he is back to must start, Drew Rasperson. I don't think he's back to must start. So that would be a sell. He's done it two starts at a row going six innings because he threw less than 80. He was so efficient that he did it on less than 80 pitches. But that's not even Drew Rasmussen, as efficient as he is.

That's not sustainable. Trevor Roger. I think he's a fine starter, not a start. Trevor Rogers was great again this time against the Mariners. Seven innings, one run, six strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 95 pitches. He's allowed two earn runs or fewer in 10 of 11 starts by or sell. Rogers is a trustworthy SP3 rest of season. Bye? I see if question mark? I sell it because I think he's more like a five than a three. Yeah, I can quibble with what number you want to put on it,

but I think he's a starting caliber fantasy option moving forward. Yes. I didn't want to say he's must start because I think I did that exact one last week. I tried to make it out. I got it. Try to rise it up a little bit higher there on Rogers, but gosh, man. 143BRAs. Drew Asperson, 16 starts with 80 or 80 or fewer pitches.

16 starts with 80 or fewer pitches. He has five quality starts, which is, impressive that he's gotten to five, but yeah, I think it's going to be less than half the time. He gets a quality start moving forward. And Shohei Otani had his deepest start of the season in his return to Anaheim. Four and a third innings, four runs allowed, seven strikeouts to zero walks. He had 14 whiffs on 80 pitches. He jumped all the way from 54 pitches all the way up to 80 in this one. By yourself that you can start Otani the pitcher with confidence in leagues where he

as two different players. Not with confidence, because five innings, I think, is still going to be the best case scenario. Dave Roberts did say that Otani will not throw more than five innings in a start rest of season either. And look, a five inning, no earned run, seven strikeout start is super valuable. You can't bet on the best case scenario every time out. There are going to be plenty of starts where he goes four innings and gives up two runs and just isn't very useful. He's kind of like Drew Rasmussen, but more talented.

I think you can start him, but it's five. winnings once a week. That's not that value. In points leagues, I think he's still a super fringy option. And even in Roto, I think he's starting him against a good matchup, sure, but I'm not, I'm not buying in as like, you can just put him in your lineup as a, as a pitcher. All right, fair enough. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here. I'm just going to mention the names of the pitchers. If there's anything you want to add on this group, go for it. Merrill Kelly, Nick Povetta, Yuri Perez, and Kevin Gosman here, all, you know, somewhat interesting starts, anything to add on those four?

Yuri was good. He made one bad pitch to Gabriel Arias, and it was a three-round homer. And there was also something going around on social media where, like, Jose Ramirez was showing the dugout what Yuri Perez does with his glove, depending on what pitch he's throwing, tipping his pitches, in other words. It looked like Jose Ramirez was cluing in the rest of the dugout to that. And he has given up five homers in his last two starts.

Right, that might explain why he had such a bad outing against the Braves in his previous start. But once it becomes known, like once it's circulating on social media, then certainly the team is going to become aware of it and put a stop to it. That's always going to be if there's an issue for Yuri Perez. It's going to be home runs. He gives up a lot of fly balls. Gosman, I just, I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this. He had four batted balls in this game with an XBA over 770.

all four of them were outs. It's a good defense out there. That is like a one in four thousand chance that all four of, if you take the XBA 77790, 850, if you take that at face value, the chance of all four of those becoming outs is something like one in four thousand. This was,

he's been getting very lucky lately, Kevin Gosman. All right. Next group, Hunter Brown, Logan Gilbert, Joe Ryan, and David Peterson got destroyed by the Braves here. Anything stand out from those four? Seemed like just a bad control day for Peterson. The five walks were uncharacteristic.

He entered with 3.0 per 9, entered with a 65% strike rate on the season, which is pretty good. So I think it was just something weird that happened to him. and I think he's still fine as like a number five type in fantasy. All right. Again, that was David Peterson. Some hitting leftovers, Vinnie Pee. Baby. Vinny Pasquantino, another big game,

two for five with his 22nd home run. He is homered in three of his last five. Haraldo Pardomo is on fire. One for two with a sock and a shoe. He's got two homers and two steals in his last three. And having a pretty big second half. Cotel Marte with clutch homers in back-to-back games. Four for five with his 20s.

23rd home run. He launched a three-run go-ahead home run in the ninth inning with the D-backs down one. So in the ninth, it was, yeah, just clutch stuff there. He's so cool. And Junior Caminero did it again. Camineiro! 34 homers. He has six in his last seven. And Scott, we are one home run away from playing. One. The full lane. Be great if he did it on a Thursday, but they're off. I don't know if, did you guys see the home run?

No. No. It might have been the worst pitch anybody's made in Major League Baseball this season. It was like an 87 mile an hour slider belt high in the middle of the zone. It was like the worst possible

place you could hang a slider to a 70 grade power hitter. It was impressive actually. I'm watching it now. Ooh. It's just a classic cement mixer slider. He'd been there. Nothing.

It was just backing up, man. Yeah, that was Miami. It's like he crushed it. But man, that was like, that was such a bad pitch. It had a 47 degree launch angle. That thing was high in the sky. My goodness. That's crazy.

I just, I just wanted to point out that Vinnie Pasquantino, who we were kind of conceding on early in the year, he had a terrible April. It's been pretty awesome since then. Since May 1st, Vinnie Pasquantino is batting two. 84 with I believe 18 of the 22 home runs That's gonna be a 100 RBI season for him. The walk rate isn't

where we thought it would be as he was coming up through the miners He's not as good of an OPP guy But he's He's a legit legit bad at first base. He matters Yeah, I was trying to pull up his page To see what his pace stats are for the season

Before this game I'm sorry, 287 since May 1st Not 284 18 home runs. Vinnie P is on pace for 29 homers and 105 RBI this season. That was before this game. So now he's on pace for 30 home runs. Good season.

Yeah, getting 30 out of him would be pretty awesome. Some bullpen things here call to the bullpen for the Royals. Carlos Estevez got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a run, took his fifth loss for the Nationals. Jose Ferrer got the final four outs, picked up the win. For the Tigers, Kyle Finnegan got the eighth with a one-run lead, facing five, six, and seven in the White Sox lineup. He walked one, picked up the hold.

Will Vest got the ninth, clean inning for his 18th save, and all of a sudden, Will Vest has back-to-back saves once again. Yeah, this is feeling like Vest and Tommy Canley earlier this year. And I think Vest is, I thought Vest was better then, and I think Vest is better now. So I'm giving the edge to Vest. It worked out then, hopefully it'll work out now. I will point out, though, Finnegan has, and there's actually been articles written about this by Beat Riders,

it's a known strategy the Tigers have implemented to have him throw his splitters more and fade the fastball. So he might actually be a good reliever now and not just a de facto closer like he was with the Nationals. For the Cardinals, Riley O'Brien got the eighth with the one-run lead facing the top of the lineup. He gave up two hits but got out of it. Jojo Romero got the ninth with a one-run lead, gave up a two-run homer, took his fourth-blown save, first-blown save and fourth loss.

On the other side for the Rockies, Victor Vodnick retired the side for his fourth save, and that saves on back-to-back days. So in the deepest of leagues, NL-only, if you need saves, Victor Voddick. For the Rangers, Phil Meiton entered with two outs in the eighth, a one-run lead.

Man on first, he struck out Tyler Locklear, came back out for the ninth. Boom, all fell apart, gave up four runs in that inning, took his third blown save and fourth loss. Do you guys think Phil Maton still gets the next save opportunity for the Rangers? Man, your guess is as good as mine. I think he's still the best reliever in that bullpen, but...

It's not like he has a long track record of dominance, you know? He's had some pretty good years. For the D-backs, lefty, Andrew Salfrank got the ninth with a one-run lead, and he closed it out for his first save. Very deep league name there. For the Cubs, Daniel Palencia struck out one for his six. For the Orioles, Yanir Cano got the ninth with a two-run lead. He was charged with two runs.

Kegan Egan replaced him and got the final two out. He wound up with the win. And for the Angels, Kenley Jansen got the ninth with a one-run lead. Picked up his 23rd save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, shorter slate, only seven games. And honestly, not great options here. It's Bailey Ober against the Tigers and maybe Brad Lord against the Phillies. Ober's the only one I would consider.

Yep. And then on Friday we get Colin Ray against the Pirates. Nick Martinez against the Brut. Honestly, forget it. Don't use Nick Martinez against the Brewers. Aaron's, nope, don't do that one either. Charlie Morton against the twins,

Andre Palante against the Yankees, Jack Perkins against the Angels, maybe. Wait. Why? Oh, because Savali got destroyed his last time out. He is facing the Royals. And the Brewers are destroying everyone. And the Brewers are just,

destroying everybody. Okay, but Savali at Kansas City I understand his last star wasn't good the previous three were great and it was against a bad offense. Guardians right? Yeah yeah give up nine runs look it goes without saying these are bad choices what is the best of the bad choices

Charlie Morton is the best of the bad choices he got destroyed last time out and I think it was the same matchup the twins wasn't it? I think the twins Sounds are easier than the royals right now. Twins kind of came back down to Earth in a series against the Yankees, too. The twins are bad, but the Royals... I think Perkins against the Angels is fine. I kind of like the pitcher.

Angels strike out a lot. The Angels do strike out a lot, but they're actually, like, they hit well for striking out a lot. Yeah, they do. They pop some home runs. I would say Perkins and Morton of this group. I mean, I don't... Had Morton for me. I want credit if Savali has a good start.

I don't want blame if he has a bad start. Because truthfully, I'm not starting Savali anywhere. Can't see that. Well, that's why I don't like doing this segment. Well, because I just want to tell everybody don't start these. Don't you notice? Don't you notice I clam up when the relievers come up? Yeah.

You could just say nothing. Yeah. Chris and I gave out a bunch of answers like two. The best of the bad options Friday. I think it's Savali at Kansas City. And we'll talk about it again tomorrow because tomorrow's Thursday. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy and Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.