Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Nelson Cruz Traded To The Tampa Bay Rays! - Emergency Podcast (7/22 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 23, 2021

Nelson Cruz was just traded to the Tampa Bay Rays! What does this mean for his Fantasy value? Well... he's awesome. Who might lose playing time on the Rays? What do we need to know about the prospects Minnesota received in Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman? Who will gain playing time on the Twins now? 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55" TV, portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to cbssports.com/homerun to enter. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott, Chris, and Adam. And just like that, we have our first decent-sized trade of the trade deadline season with Nelson Cruz headed to the Tampa Bay Rays. Welcome into an emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today. On Thursday night, July 22nd, Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers. The Final Deal, Nelson Cruz and minor league reliever, Calvin Fawcher, in exchange for two pitching prospects from the raise, Joe Ryan and Drew Strottman.

Honestly, Chris, we haven't talked about Nelson Cruz seemingly all season long because he's just doing what he always does. He's currently the 57th ranked player in Roto. Does this do anything for his value? No, probably not. I mean, the one thing I guess would be it's the raise. So you never know if maybe they won't play him as much as the twins were. But they probably will. He steps on the field and I mean, he has to be their best hitter by a decent margin.

So given that they have a designated hitter spot available, and a ton of guys you can play a ton of different positions. I don't see any reason to think that they wouldn't just put him out there every single day and let him mash. This is a team that needs offense. They've got a lot of really interesting pieces, but it's been a, you know, we talked about on the podcast yesterday. It's been a disappointing season for Austin Meadows. Brandon Lau has been up and down. So, you know, Wander Franco hasn't given them what they hope for.

So, yeah, I think the assumption should be that Nelson Cruz is going to keep being Nelson Cruz. Yeah, just comparing ballparks for a second. Park factors say that Target Field is a better place than Tropicana to hit, but according to, I was looking into Swish Analytics for specifically right-handed power. Tropicana actually does grade out as a better park for right-handed power than target field. So take that for whatever it's worth. But just gives us an opportunity to once again revel in Nelson Cruz, because again, we haven't really talked about him this year, but he's the 57th ranked player in 5-by-5 roto. He does have three seals, which is pretty random for Nelson

Cruz. He's averaging 3.1 fantasy points per game, batting 294, 19 homers, a 907 OPS. Chris, that ranked 17th among qualified hitters from Nelson Cruz. At the age of 41, it's just, it's crazy, and he's still crushing the ball. You look at his stackass page, it's red everywhere. He's going to finish the season with 450 career homers. There's a decent chance. There's a non-zero chance

that Nelson Cruz, who didn't hit more than 10 homers in a season until he was 28 years old, is going to finish with 500 home runs. He's going to come really close. Like, I don't know. At some point, he's going to stop being awesome. It's the comp I've made over and over has been to David Ortiz. I would bet David Ortiz is probably not a good major league hitter anymore, but we have no idea.

He retired before we ever saw it. Some guys do that. Most guys, father time is undefeated, and you will see the decline phase. well before they retire. Nelson Cruz is one of those guys who just, it has not happened for him. There's no signs really of slowing down. Over the last two seasons, he's played 138 games. He's got 35 homers and a 297 average. He's amazing. I don't think changing Lee or Parks is going to be a big detriment to him. He's got the kind of power that should play everywhere. Yep. He's amazing. Yep. I don't think there's much else to say aside from that. I will just point out the

Minnesota Twins were 12th in runs per game entering Thursday's action. Tampa Bay was seventh in runs per game. So they do strike out quite a bit as a team, but he's actually joining a slightly better lineup in terms of run production. So could have more RBI and run scoring opportunities there for Nelson Cruz. Some more Tampa Bay fallout, I would guess some combo of Gandhi Diaz, Joey Wendell, G. Man, Choi, maybe even Wander Franco lose a little bit of playing time. Brett Phillips too.

I, you know, it's, I don't think it's anything major for fantasy. But yeah, I think the point you made about. Nelson Cruz. Maybe he sits out a little bit more here there as they like to keep guys fresh. That's what Tampa Bay does. Meadows has been the primary DH lately. I would guess he just slots into one of the corner outfield spots now. I think that's, it's pretty simple. You don't have to overthink about it.

He just probably plays a lot of left field now. I want to talk about some of the prospects here that the Minnesota Twins actually received in this trade. And I think there's a lot to like with Joe Ryan, who just kind of went under the radar because Tampa Bay just always has so many fun prospects, but he's really fun himself. He's got a really big fastball, great slider, 12 games at AAA this season, 11 starts, 3.63 ERA for Joe Ryan, 0.79 whip,

an 11.8K per 9, 1.6 walks per 9. So really good strikeouts. Looks like really good control. He's only 3% rostered. I don't know that Minnesota's going to rush him because they're not really playing for much, but it kind of seems like he's ready too. So what do you think about Joe Ryan, Chris?

Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, the scathing on reports on him were maybe that the stuff isn't quite as good as, you know, he had a 38% strikeout rate in 2019. So he's the kind of, you know, he has the kind of profile where I wonder, like, is he as good as the numbers indicate or is he someone who benefits from, you know, kind of being a little advanced for his level? he's 25 years old and he can just pound the zone and that's the kind of thing that can really work for you in the minors but maybe when you get up to the majors it doesn't quite work out as well i don't know i i can't honestly say that i i've watched him pitch so i can't say um you know that there's a there's something to that his you know stuff isn't as good as the number say that's just you know what i'm reading but yeah i mean look he he looks interesting when he gets called up, I think he'll certainly be worth adding in any

a only league if he does get picked up. And, you know, I think the same is probably true of Drew Stottman, whose numbers aren't quite as good, you know, actually lower ERA, but he's had some control problems. Injuries have been an issue for him over the last couple of seasons. You know, I think both of those guys, if they get the call, you've got a 312 ERA with Stottman for his career, a 270 for, Ryan, you know, at the very least, AL only, they should be added if they get the call for the twins and they're both at AAA, so it could happen down the stretch.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind adding Joe Ryan right now in an AL only league, stashing him there. Anywhere else, you know, 15 teams, 12 team roto, I don't think you need to stash him now. But if he's someone that gets to call later this season to the Minnesota Twins, Joe Ryan, that is, I'd be interested in adding him in probably some standard leagues because I'm pretty interested, definitely in that strikeout ability. Let's just talk about the twins lineup fallout here as well, Chris. On Thursday, they had Josh Donaldson at DH, which I'm sure they're shopping him as well. The twins are not really playing for much this season. They would love to move him. He's got like $40 million left on that contract, I'm pretty sure.

Everything going on? Everything are right there? Cats are fighting. It's fine. Yeah, so I don't know if they're going to be able to move Josh Donaldson, but I'm sure they would like to. Williams Osudillo was playing at third base. The one that I'm paying attention to here is Nick Gordon, former top prospects with them.

And I just wonder if he's going to get more playing time here down the stretch. And if you play in a Categories league, he's got some speed. So anything else that you're seeing here from the Twins lineup that we should pay attention to? No, I mean, this is, you know, in the last, what, 48 hours, they've lost two of their best bats. In Alex Keroloff, Katz, please stop fighting. In Acts, Alex Keroloff having season-ending surgery and now Nelson Cruz being traded. you know, you look at someone like Trevor Larnach, and there have been some interesting things that he's been doing.

The overall numbers aren't amazing, but, you know, the underlying numbers maybe suggest that he's been a little unlucky. So maybe he can be someone who moves up in the batting order and can provide a little spark down the stretch. But for the most part, yeah, I mean, you know, maybe Nick Gordon gets, I don't know, eight steals the rest of the season.

You know, that's kind of the kind of thing you're hearing. hoping for. He's got 10 in 36 games between the majors and the minors so far this season. So he's got that going for him. All right, Chris. I think we need to wrap up here so that you can make sure that everything's all right with the cats. Trevor Larnick, someone I really did like earlier on in the season, the strikeouts have really got out of control. It's up to a 33% strikeout rate for Larnik. His max exit velo in the 97th percentile of the season. So I think there's something there for Larnik. are some skills, but I think it's going to take a little bit more refinement. So we'll see what happens there for him and for Nick Gordon.

All right, that'll do it. Nelson Cruz headed to the Tampa Bay Rays. Let's see what else happens. For Chris, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again later on. Bye-bye.