Fantasy Baseball Today - Nick Lodolo Shutout & What Happened to These Four Players?? (7/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

Nick Lodolo fired off the first shutout of his career (3:23). ... Brandon Walter continues to pitch well (6:05). ... Quinn Priester had another great start (11:20). ... Tyler Glasnow reminded us of his upside (13:52). ... News (17:08): Kyle Tucker and Bobby Witt Jr. were both out of the lineup. Also, Taj Bradley got sent down, which means it's Joe Boyle time. ... The Dog of the Week goes to the CARDINALS (28:02). ... What happened to Max Fried, Yainer Diaz, Jesus Luzardo and Teoscar Hernandez (33:18)? ... Any interest in these waiver wire pitchers (50:08)? ... Royce Lewis looks like he's waking up (56:37)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:52). 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. Hey there. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, July 24th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we got huge starts from Nick Lodold and Tyler Glass now, what has happened to these four players? Plus a fun night for the White Sox future. Colson Montgomery and Kyle Teal having big games there as well. Chris, long time, no see. Boots on the ground, we were. Mets and Angels in City Field on Wednesday.

Good times. Good times. Yeah, it was nice to hang out. We hung out with a couple other fantasy baseball people and saw a Piedelonzo bomb. Mike Trout bomb. We saw some bombs. It was a good day. We got to see Scott's guy, Sean Mania, first win of the season. How about that? Yeah. Although, I don't know,

his... Two miles per hour slower. His velocity down a little bit. We'll talk about that. Man was a little shaky. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We'll talk about that. Shout out to the guys. It always is a good time. Seeing other people in the industry, of course. Rick Wolf, Steve Gardner, Nick Pollock, Adam Rohnis. Always good.

Catch it up and obviously catch it to baseball. Eric Samolski. Eric Samolski, yes, of course. He made an appearance. Great times. had by all, but let's get into the players of the night. In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened. All right, Scott, we will start with you,

the old two-for, two-for-one, buy one, get on free. Let's start with Nicola Dolo. Complete game shutout. Yes, I know a shutout, by definition, is a complete game, but, you know, sometimes people talk loosely and say shutout without me, that so I like to specify complete game shutout. It still says CGSO

in your programs. Yes. Anyway, nine shout out and he's against the Nationals, walked nobody, which is kind of a recurring theme with Nick Lodolo, struck out eight, a really good start

in a string of really good starts and was shaping up to be a really good year for Nicolodolo, surprisingly, I would say, because it certainly doesn't look like the Nicodolo. In many ways, it doesn't look like the Nicodolo we got so excited about in the past, the one who couldn't stay healthy. His curveball hasn't been the, it's been fine,

but, you know, he's not missing bats at nearly the rate that past Nicodolo did. There's nothing special there in the batted ball profile. He doesn't allow especially hard contact, but it's not really weak contact either, not extreme fly ball or ground ball. The one thing where Nicola Dola really does stand out and more so in past years is strike throwing. Like I mentioned, no walks in this complete game effort. And his control has been elite. It's been elite. Whether you're looking at strike percentage, best of his career, or certainly walk rate.

It's been great. And that whole profile for Nicola Dolo reminds me a lot of what we're seeing from Matthew Boyd this year. Matthew Boyd, another pitcher who I keep expecting to fall off. And he just seems to keep getting better and better, even though there's not a lot in the data, beyond an elite control that that leads you to believe this guy should be anything special. And so, you know, they're both left-handers, which it tends to be preferable to right-handers. Left-handers have a higher margin for error, I guess I'd say, than right-handers do. So that probably helps. But I'm getting the sense this year that with less damage being done on contact,

there's a lot of value to a pitcher just throwing a ton of strikes, to just not beating himself with walks, especially if he's left-handed. And so that brings us to the other one I wanted to talk about here from Wednesday, Brandon Walter. It's less known than Boyd and certainly Nicodolo, but he's kind of fitting the same profile here, a left-hander who doesn't allow the weakest contact in the world, doesn't have an extreme bad at ball profile,

but terrific control. And I'll note all three of these guys, Boyd, Lodolo, Walter. They're not huge bat messers, but they get strikeouts at a decent enough clip, I think. About average on all three, yeah. So Walter actually has been significantly above average so far. He's at like 25%. But it's less than a strikeout per inning, right? It might be.

8.70. Pay for that. So he kind of fits the mold of the pitcher that we're seeing exceed. expectations this year. And he did it again at the Diamondbacks here on Wednesday night. Seven innings, one run aloud, just one walk, of course, five strikeouts. That's six of nine starts now. Nine starts, Walters had in the majors this year.

Six of them, six innings or more, two earn runs or fewer. You know, I think there's a lot to like here. I think if I think maybe by traditional analytic standards, Walter would slip through the cracks. I mean, he's been kind of a minor league journeyman. He's on the older side. His stuff doesn't, at first glance, doesn't blow you away. But he fits the mold of pitchers that are succeeding in this environment.

And so I think it's worth gambling on at this point. It's not an open and shut case, but I definitely see the upside for Brandon Walter. Brandon Walter up to 46% rostered, which might not sound like much, but he is the most added pitcher on CBS right now. He jumped from 26% all the way up to 46% rostered in the past week or so. He's a two-star pitcher next week. Yeah, and he's also just pitching really well. So I totally get why he's being added,

and I think he needs to continue to be added the way that he's pitching. And the team that he pitches for, right? The Astros do great work with their pitchers, pretty good offensive run support there. good bullpen as well. So everything kind of lines up for Brandon Walter, just being a fantasy relevant pitcher. So yeah, if he's available in your league, I would change that.

And one last note in case somebody wanted to dig into those numbers further, he is actually allowing weaker contact and a higher ground ball rate than Lodolo or Matthew Boyd. So it's not a perfect analog. But if you were skeptical of how he's doing in those areas, like just the fact that he's a left-hander who misses bats at an OK clip. has elite control, I think are strong enough selling points on their own. And it's made all the more impressive by the fact that he missed all of last season with a rotator cuff injury. He hasn't pitched since 2023. And he's doing this. So it's really

impressive. Walter you're talking about? Yeah, Brandon Walter. I do want to, Lodolo is just weird. It's just weird what he's doing this season because his chase rate is actually up from last year. Uh, which generally we associate with more strikeouts and more swings and misses. Well, he's giving up his contact rates on both pitches in and out of the strike zone are higher than they've ever been. And as a consequence, his whiff rate is way lower than it's ever been. But he's managing to make it work because if you can get swings on pitches out of the strike zone, even if you're not missing bats, you're going to tend to generate weak contact.

So that probably explains at least some of it. I will say Lodolo has a 395 XERA, the worst than last year at least. And I generally think he's a sell-high candidate, but I've been saying that for a while. And outside of a rough June, it hasn't really come to fruition yet. So just making me look dumb. Just getting back to Brandon Walter for a second, I know Quinn Priester, who will talk about another strong start here. Feels like he's at the top of the list of, you know,

Waverwire pitchers lately. He's all the way up to 80% rostered. Edward Cabrera, who we spoke about yesterday, I feel like he's just behind Quinn Priester. Then we get into, you know, kind of interesting guys. Emmett Sheehan and Zebby Matthews and maybe Camp Schlittler, guys like that. Scott, would you take Brandon Walter ahead of the three names I just mentioned? Would you go as far as to take him ahead of Edward Cabrera?

Well, he feels the most usable of the, them right now if I wasn't desperate to fill a lineup spot with pitchers and I could afford to gamble a little more on upside. I'd probably opt for Zebby Matthews and Emmichian over over Brandon Walter but he's very much in the discussion I think all three are far ahead of Kim Schlittler for me. Okay, I agree with that and there's a part of me that kind of believes more in Brandon Walter than Quinn Priester. I'm not exactly sure what it is. I've been struggling with the Cren Priester thing because like I think him and Edward Cabrera kind of turned their seasons around at the same time. And in some ways,

Priester's been more impressive because he's gone deeper into games more consistently. But with Cabrera, I think there's a little more, um, there are a few more things that you can point to as to how he's turned his season around. Like he's changed his pitch mix. He's ditched that he's throwing the sinker a lot more than the four seamer now. Quinn Priester, his pitchmix is basically identical to what it was in the early season. And he's just pitching a lot better. And that somehow feels less sustainable. I don't know if that makes sense.

And whereas Walter, maybe it's just as simple as Walter wasn't in the majors and struggling early in the season. So we've only seen the good from him. But yeah, I find myself liking Brandon Walter quite a bit. It does also sort of feel like this is setting up for a disastrous to start. week when everybody finally buys into him.

But that's just vibes. You know, that's just me being a fatalist. So just to give the other side of the corn here, because I think I'm buying into Priester a little more than you are, if he had the innings to qualify, it would be the fifth highest ground ball rate.

So he does have, he is elite in one area that we normally correlate with success. And while not every great ground ball, pitcher is a good pitcher for fantasy. Ones who strike out batters at,

what is he up to now? 7.6? That's actually not as good as I thought. Over the course of the last two months, his K-minus walk rate is like 21%, which is a borderline elite market. In addition to the elite ground ball rate, it's just the first two months of the season, it was, or the first month and a half, it was 4% K-minus walk rate, which is on the complete other side

of the spectrum. So to put it another way, last 11 starts for Quinn Priester, which is really how he, when he turned to season around, 8.7K per 9. So that's what I was referring to you. When you're in a league ground ball pitcher and you could strike out batters at that good of a rate, you know, that's the Framber Valdez model for success. And that's how Priester's been going for the past two and a half months now. I kind of just give the Brewers the benefit of the doubt right now,

the way that they're playing and pitching as a team. So, yeah, I do think Priesters at the top of that list. and then we're probably, you know, some combination of Edward Cabrera and Brandon Walter just behind him. I want to talk about Tyler Glass now here who had his best start of the season by far up against the twins, seven innings, one run, 12 strikeouts, just one walk. He had 19 whiffs on 106 pitches and just a reminder if we needed it that Tyler Glass now is still capable of a just monster start like this. In three outings since returning, it's 18 innings, just nine hits allowed, two runs with 20, three strikeouts to just five walks.

How long will it last? Nobody can answer that question. But as long as he's healthy... It's going to be awesome. We're probably looking at like a... I don't know, high-end SP2, something like that. I'm not going to rank him that way because there's a ton of risk, but he can be that good while he's healthy.

Absolutely. He's a top 12 starting pitcher if innings are equal. It's just innings are never equal for him. I think we had that conversation a couple weeks ago, Chris, and we both said, if you told us, Tyler Glassnow is making the same amount of starts as everybody else for rest of season. We'd rank him as a top five starting pitcher.

He's better than Yoshinobi Yamamoto. He's better than Frambervaldez. He's better than Logan Webb. It's just those guys are all a lot more projectable in terms of workload. Right. So I don't know that there's anything actionable. I guess, you know, if you want to try and sell high

on Class Now while he's healthy and you can get an awesome return, you can try that. But everyone else knows what they're dealing with when it comes to Tyler. glass now. So my guess is just ride it out and continue to start him as long as he is healthy. Chris, I know you wanted to talk about Matt Shaw, but we'll get to him a little bit later on. I want to keep things moving here. Big thanks to those watching live right now. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right

after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. Kyle Tucker was out of the lineup Wednesday. Craig Counsel said that he's banged up after after fouling a ball off his right knee on Tuesday. Tucker is expected to return on Friday, hopefully. Bobby Witt Jr. said the knee injury he appeared to sustain on Tuesday is not a concern. His absence on Wednesday was more of a rest day. Okay, kind of convenient. We'll see on that one as well. Terrick Scoobal was placed on the paternity list, but is expected to be activated in time to make his next start Saturday against the Blue Jays. Tage Bradley was sent down after an awful start on Wednesday night. He lasted just one and two thirds innings against the White Sox where he gave up four runs, three walks, zero

strikeouts. It's a 461 ERA. It's a 128 whip, guys. Is it Joe Boyle's season? Presumably. It's so funny because there was a lot of long faces when the online. I didn't actually see the faces. I just saw the words, but there were, I associated long faces with the words I was seeing.

long avatars. When the race said after the break. Yeah, exactly. When the race, it was an egg? Remember the egg? Oh, gosh, the egg. Let me get to my point.

When the race said that they were going to use boil as a long reliever coming out of the break and people, you know, oh, I guess there's no reason to stash him anymore. He's just a reliever from now on. As if they've never seen a baseball game in their life and don't know how often pitch you,

injuries happen or in this case it wasn't even an injury obviously it was just Taj Bradley had a stinker against the white socks and the race said we can't have that so they sent him down and this creates the opening that strangely never developed for the first four months for Boyle to step into it and yeah he's made huge strides this year I will just one word of caution like obviously pick him up there's a lot of strikeout upside he was great in the miners it looks like the rays are doing their thing where they take a bad control guy and make them not so bad with control. In his three appearances since being called up,

it is only a 59% strike rate, which is terrible and more reminiscent of pre-20205 Joe Boyle. So that does, you know, make me a little uneasy, but it is also only three appearances. And again, this particular issue is the race specialty and Boyle seemed to overcome it in the minor. So, you know, let's give him a full, a full accounting and not just not rushed to judgment with the strike throwing,

especially since the race themselves, apparently with this decision to demote Taj Bradley are encouraged by what they're seeing from Joe Boyle. And Joe Boyle did throw three innings of relief here on Wednesday, so very easily lines up with Taj Bradley's spot, and I presume that he will just take Tage Bradley's spot in the rotation moving forward. Joe Boyle, 40% rostered on CBS. Where does he kind of fit into this mix? I assume he's behind Priester and Walter and Edward Cabrera.

What about, you know, Emmett Sheehan and Zebby Matthews and Cam Schlittler? Are you taking Joe Boyle over any of those? I think he's right there with Sheehan and... Zemby Matthews. Because I think they're all three of those guys. And Schlittler, to a slightly lesser degree, they're all still, I think, more like stashes than guys that you want to throw in your lineup, whereas like Priest or Walter, those guys look like just guys you want to start right now.

And that could change with a couple more starts. But, you know, Boyle, Sheen, Zeb Matthews, they're all speculative ads at this point. We haven't actually seen it really at the Major League level. We like the talent. If you told me Boyle was going to stick around in the rotation the rest of the season, I think he'd be potentially a top 60, top 50 starting pitcher. But that's sort of cheating because if Joe Boyle sticks in the rotation the rest of the season, it probably means he's pitching pretty well.

So that kind of, that's kind of double counting, you know. But I do think there's a ton of upside here. Yeah, I don't think that's the extent of the upside for Boyle. I think. Oh, yeah. What's a good, what's a good upside comp for Joe Boyle? It's not one to come to mind. Maybe like a right-handed Robbie Ray.

Is that taking it too far? It's kind of like the Dylan C's model, I guess, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I'd be tempted. I am kind of thinking along with the rays here, and they haven't said Taj Bradley is down for any set amount of time. They haven't said for sure Joe Boyle's taking his spot.

But if I'm reading into this what it looks like, and they have that much faith in Boyle, I'd be tempted to take him even over Brandon Walter for as much as I was talking up Walter earlier in the show. Don't think I could do it over Priester or Edward Cabrera, but maybe over Walter and I think definitely over him, sheen. All right, Nathan Avaldi will start for the Rangers Friday against the Braves. And speaking of the Rangers, they activated John Gray,

planned to use him out of the bullpen, and he was thrown in there right away on Wednesday. He pitched two scoreless innings across the 6th, 7th, and 8. and maybe works his way into, you know, higher leverage situations, maybe save opportunities. You know, this is something people kind of speculated about before the season as well there with John Gray. Marcel O'Meyer left Wednesday's game with right wrist discomfort. Dodgers Max Muncie will travel to the team's spring training complex on Thursday to take live at bats for a few days. It's looking increasingly likely that he'll be back sooner than expected.

Rehabing pitcher updates. Hunter Green recorded four strikeouts over two schoolless innings in a rehab start at the Arizona Complex League. Bailey Ober will make another rehab start at AAA on Friday. Shane Bieber allowed one run while striking out four over three innings at high A. And Roki Sasaki threw a 39 pitch bullpen Wednesday and is on track to face the teams to face hitters at the team's spring training complex next week. I believe Louis Heel also made a rehab start, and if I saw the line correctly, I didn't think it was a very good outing for him, but obviously the bigger thing is for him to just build up his pitches

and make sure the velocity is okay. And that, you know... I think it was down a little bit from what I saw. Yeah, I didn't see the actual velocity, but I know there was a bunch of walks in there and stuff. So my guess is we probably get one more Louise Heel rehab start before he rejoins the Yankees. Matt Chapman left after getting hit by a pitch

on his left elbow. X-rays came back negative. Marcel Ozuna has sat out four of the past six, five of the past six games, and there are some rumors that trade talks with the Padres have intensified there.

So perhaps Ozuna will be on the move soon. Speaking of the Padres, apparently they're listening to offers on Dylan Sees with the Yankees, Mets, Cubs, and Red Sox, believed to have checked in. That comes according to John Heyman.

David Festa was placed in the aisle with right shoulder inflammation. Ryan Malkassel will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. He is not eligible for activation until July 30th. But in leagues with a corner infield spot, he's a name you could look to stash. Mountcastle only 16% rostered. Yeah, and he was one of my second half sleepers. I just didn't want to gloss over that Dillon C's thing.

The Padres who are very much in the race. In fact, if the season into today, they'd be in the playoffs are shopping their ace. Well, he hasn't performed like one, so still. I mean, it's not like they have a lot of pitching depth either. Like, Randy Vasquez is still in the rotation for them. That's a bold move, cotton. I kind of like it. I kind of like the fearlessness, and AJ Prellar's always shown that fearlessness.

I think he's, I think it verges on recklessness too often, but just the way I run my dynasty teams, I am often something of a seller even when I'm contending. And so I like that there is an opportunity for real-life GM to do that. Dalton Varshow is on track to return to the Blue Jays next week. And he is 26% rostered. He had eight home runs in 24 games earlier this season. Low batting average does have some pop. So a name for some deeper five outfielder leagues.

The Cardinals DFA'd Eric Fetty and plan to keep Michael McGreevy in their rotation. Guardians' prospect Chase DeLauder underwent surgery on Wednesday to address a hamate fracture in his right hand slash wrist and he is expected to miss six to eight weeks before

returning to game action. Might be the most unlucky prospect in terms of injuries that I have ever seen. Just one thing after another, a foot injury, a foot injury, now a hamate bone, it's poor Chase water. I mean, it's real

like Grady's size more Rocco Baldelli vibes, except those guys actually got to the majors before it happened. True. We told the Guardians. They got to call him up while he's healthy because it won't be long. They didn't listen.

Speaking of prospects, by the way, Cardinals prospect, J.J. Weatherholt is tearing up AAA. He had two home runs here on Wednesday. I don't know, Scott. Maybe a September call up and then like up on opening day next year, something like that. Yeah, I mean, obviously he was just drafted last year,

but he's already made it to AAA. Obviously, he's performing there. It seems like he could be, like if the Cardinals find a taker for Nolan Aeronado, and I'm sure they'd love to find a taker for Nolan Aeronado. I'm not sure how many people are asking, but I'm sure they'd love to find a taker. And obviously he has to approve the deal.

That was the problem this offseason. But if that happens, it seems like J.J. Weatherholt could be the biggest beneficiary. They slide Brendan Donovan over to third base and stall Weatherholt at second. I don't know that it would happen on August 1st, but I think it very likely would happen by August 25th or whatever the cutoff is. And yeah, the rest may be history. Really good prospect there. I'm trying to remember exactly where I ranked a midseason top 50.

I think it was like fifth or sixth. Really good. That's the good news for the Cardinals. Now we're going to talk about some bad news. Yeah, sorry to pile on Cardinals fans, but Sunny Gray was the dog of the week over the weekend. And now it's just the Cardinals as a team. They lost a series to the Rockies.

They got shutout at Corse Field. It was the first shutout for the Rockies since May 15th, 2024, excuse me, first shutout in 220 games. the Cardinals were really making moves for a little while there. But now they're 1 and 5 coming out of the break, three and a half back of the wild card spot. This probably makes it a little more likely

that the Cardinals are going to be sellers at the deadline, right? Yeah, I think so. And I think this is what we look for coming out of the break is these teams that are on the fences, you know, that those first week out, what happens? And a team here like the Cardinals that go 1 and 5, all of a sudden they're three and a half games out of a wildcarts. spot, which is not insurmountable.

I think they might see the writing on the wall here, and they do have some assets. I think that they can get a decent amount for in trade. So Ryan Helsley, Sunny Gray, even though he's coming off his worst start of the season. Nolan Aronado has still had a good year. So I understand there's like some money involved in that deal and things like that. Good year. Good year defensively, maybe. I could absolutely see them selling off some pieces here.

Scott, like, who would be next up for saves if they trade Helsley? Is it Phil Maeton? I don't know, Jojo Romero, someone else? Yeah. Yes. The answer is yes. Maybe the lefty-righty tandem, which would make Phil Meiton the one to bet on.

Not like he couldn't be moved either. So it's not like there is a surefire closer in waiting in that bullpen if they decided to sell and if they sold on him in particular. The good thing about the scenario I just laid out a minute ago trading Aeronado. and installing Weatherholt is, I don't know that they necessarily, the Cardinals necessarily, have to think they're out of the playoff race to do that.

They would be happy to just get out of Nolan Aronado, and they have other alternatives for third base, even if they decide not to go with Weatherholt yet. And Ryan Helsley's an impending free agent. Here's one problem in a potential sunny gray trade. He is either due $40 million for next year. well technically it's 35 million and a $5 million buyout for the 2027 season if they don't want to pick up his team option or it's either one year 40 million basically or two years 65 million that's going to really limit the market for sunny gray who is a good pitcher but uh like i think Zach wheeler is making $42 million a year he's a little bit better than than sunny gray I know, you know, it's only one year left for Sunny Gray, but that makes it a little iffy on finding a market for him.

Arrano, you know, they'll probably have to eat some money either way, I think, on that one. But yeah, that's the one thing with the Cardinals. But I do hope we get a, a Hellsley trade seems pretty inevitable, but an Arrano trade, get him to a better park. And I would love to see JJ Weatherhold, who has not played third base. as a professional. He's played almost exclusively shortstop, a little bit of second base. And I think long term he's viewed more as a second baseman. But maybe, maybe he'd be an option at second base. All right, let's hit our final break. And when we return, what happened to these four players, guys that have been struggling lately for a long time this season? What is going on?

We'll try to figure it out right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. What happened to these four players, and I am going to begin with Max Fried. Now, he still has had an amazing season. I totally understand that, but the four starts in July have been really bad. 652 ERA, a 155 whip here, just 12 strikeouts to nine walks over 19 and a third innings. Obviously, it was not great here against the Blue Jays. He threw just 59% of his pitches for strikes. He also had some comically bad defense behind him, which he kind of contributed to. it was a tough play. But overall it gets charged with an error there.

Guys, what's going on with Max Fried? Well, I mean, a big part of it is he's had a blister issue. That is a big part. And my understanding is it began before they let him sit out a turn in the rotation. Like it was something he was dealing with for a while. So, you know, it might be as simple as that. And while this secondary answer may not be as satisfied, buying one,

something had to happen to bring his numbers back down to earth. Like he wasn't back up to earth. Back up to earth. Yeah, if you're talking about ERA. Like he, it was unsustainable what he's doing. He's a good pitcher in like a,

you know, mid to high two ZRA kind of way, not in a, uh, a high ones even two ERA. Like that just, that just wasn't going to last. He didn't,

he didn't transform. There, there wasn't some kind of underlying. transformation that made that mathematically feasible. So whether it's the blister or not, something was going to happen to snap it back to reality. Yeah, I think he's a three-ish ERA pitcher to 90-ish ERA pitcher the rest of the way. I'm not really concerned. As long as the thing with blisters is if you like start changing your grip to try to account for it, does that?

exacerbate another issue that that would be the one concern I have if he continues to pitch through it assuming it's still an issue at all I guess I we don't know that for sure after the game max freed said the blister wasn't an issue there was an image during the game of his pinky bleeding but apparently he said that was a cut from something else I think a curveball that he threw or something but that's not a cut on his finger too yeah a blister and a cut the blister I think is on his index finger the cut was on his pinky so I don't know that those cuts are bad too. Yeah, I don't know that those... I don't think they're related by any

means, but yeah, it might just... I don't know. Be a contributing factor, another excuse as to why Freed struggled here and has struggled in the month of July. What has happened to Yiner Diaz this year? He had three hits here on Wednesday, but overall he's hitting just 246. It's a 680

OPS. We know he very much so is in the mold of a Salvador Perez. He's very aggressive. He chases a lot of pitches. He doesn't walk very much, but he also doesn't strike out very much. He's been a big underperformer in terms of expected stats this season, but I know expected stats have just kind of been weird this year, and we've had a lot of underperformer.

Underperformer, so I don't know. Is it pulled air rate, Scott? I don't know. You want to take a guess whether his pull air rate is in the blue or the red? You talk about him underperforming his expected stats? But it's better than it was last year. I feel like it's always bad for him, though. Sure.

But he's somebody who profiles to underperform his expected stats. And that has been happening, right? It wasn't. Yeah, that happened last year to a certain extent. And it's definitely happening this year. I, I, there was a point a couple of weeks ago where I wrote something about, like, some of the biggest underperformers. And like, I tried to come up with like a grand unifying theory of why certain guys are underperforming. Because a lot of the biggest underperformers this season have been these really extreme plate discipline guys.

Yiner Diaz. Salvador Perez up until the last like 10 games or so. Jackson Merrill. Michael Harris. Yeah, bad plate. Yeah, Jackson Meryl, Nick Castellanos, Jake Berger. These guys are all, you know, bottom 15 in chase rate.

Luis Garcia from the Nationals as well. Like those guys are all really disappointing and they're all have really bad play discipline. And maybe that's just, they've gotten figured out. the fly in the ointment for this theory is that the worst plate discipline guy in baseball is also the biggest surprise superstar in baseball Pete Kro Armstrong

and another guy who has bottom of the barrel plate discipline is Saddam Raphael who is also surprisingly having a great season so that that kind of kind of screws that theory up. I don't know. It could still explain it that why he could just be

going too far in the bad plate discipline extreme or extreme plate discipline if you want to put it that way range, but I find that theory unconvincing unfortunately. And I think it could just be variance.

I've long held the theory that every every player has like a 60 point batting average range. Like within 30 of their, they can hit 30 points higher than their career average. They get hit 30 points lower than their career average in a given year. Without their skill set really changing. Yeah.

And so that's, you know, Yiner Diaz is getting his 30 point lower scenario. I talked about it the other day, but fully one third of qualifiers last season had a 50 point swing in their Wobah from the first half to the second half. That's not even batting average. Wobah should be less noisy. So, yeah, I think, I still think,

Yonerdias is going to be really good moving forward. I think what makes it more frustrating for fantasy managers is that they hear us talk about all these other interesting catchers that are performing, right? And Yiner Dias is not one of them. So it's just kind of... I mean, I share that as somebody who's invested in Adley Rushman in a couple of leagues. Obviously, he's been on the IL, but before that happened. And even while he's been on the I.

It's like, ah, can I use this as an excuse to dump them and get Ivan Herrera or something? It was true. Salvador Perez up until two weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. But that's the thing about these kind of players is we know how talented Janer Diaz is. We know how talented, I think the Rushman is. What you don't want to do is drop them and have someone else benefit from when they finally start hitting like themselves.

And Salvador Perez is that perfect test case right there. Yes. Because people definitely wanted. to and were probably dropping him in some leagues. And yeah, he's red hot right now. And that's the problem is you banked all that bad production. Now you're going to let someone else get the good stuff. You know, that's always the problem.

Yeah. Well, let's move on to another name here. Jesus Lozardo, man. Another bad outing. Five innings, six runs aloud. Five walks, seven strikeouts. All right, the whiffs were there. But he threw just 57% of his pitches for strikes.

Velocity was up a little bit in this one, but obviously, you know, didn't matter much. Sweeper was awesome, didn't really have anything else working here. Even if you moved past that two-start stretch, which was just brutal, 20 earned runs over two starts, Lazardo has still allowed four plus earned runs in four of his last seven outings. And the walks, the hard contact,

have been major issues during the stretch. I just kind of wonder if maybe he's wearing down as well. He's up to 114 innings this season. Last year he threw only 66 and two-thirds. We know he has a very lengthy injury history as well. So I don't know exactly what's going on, but I don't think that we can start Hazis Lazzardo anymore moving forward. I think we've got to bench him for a little bit here.

Yeah, I mean, most of the underlying numbers are still really good. You know, three FIP. Well, Chris, we don't play in a FIP League. 371 XERA. You know what? All right. Two turns ago also. Oh, these underlying stats, they don't explain or they're like, yeah, they're not, we're not trying to explain what has happened.

We are trying to help you predict what is going to happen. And ERA is a really bad way to predict what is going to happen. It's like one of the least predictive stats in professional sports. It has very little predictive value. So, sorry, continue. But his walk rate and inability to throw strikes. Sure. I mean, that kind of seems predictive, right? Like, he's missing his spots.

He can't throw strikes. Yeah. And he's not pitching as well. He's getting hit really hard, you know? He's not pitching as well. He's, so he had a, again, eliminating the two ridiculously bad starts where he was tipping pitches, just taking them completely out. He went from a 65% strike rate before them to, I think it's 61, 62% afterward. And you're going to get worse results when your strike percentage drops that much.

But I will say. on the subject of just, oh, we just bench Luzardo for however long it takes to convince us he's okay. I don't think I'm there yet. I'm not saying you can't bench him,

but just two turns ago, he threw seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. That's just two turns ago. So, and also... Even after those two starts where he was tipping his pitches, he came back with a 10 strikeout game. Yeah, and six-one run innings.

So he's had three great starts during this bad stretch. that lead me to believe he hasn't totally lost it. He's just not as sharp as he was before. And it depends how deep your pitching staff is. But I think in the typical scenario where you have kind of a league average staff, I don't know that you can afford to, I don't know the most of those people can afford to sit Lazzardo.

Lazzardo next week, well, guess what? At the White So is that good or bad? I don't know. The way that Colston Montgomery and Kyle Taylor. Well, they have been good since the All-Star break. Right. Right. I don't think they're good.

I don't think it's still either. I totally get what you guys are saying. I just feel like we're cherry picking a little bit here. If you look at the fantasy points in his starts, his last seven starts, minus two, 29.5, 1.5, negative 11, 30.5, 4.5, and 5.5. Yeah. No. That's awful.

That is awful. Yes, but again, I don't want to just repeat what I said, but those three really good starts tell me he hasn't totally lost it. And so, again, we're not, yes, if the supposition is that his last eight, his next eight starts will go exactly as his last eight starts went, then okay, I don't want to start him for his next eight starts because the cumulative score of his last eight starts wasn't very good. but that's not how any of this works.

So I am saying there's enough good in there to lead me to believe Luzardo might just be fine and hit a little bit of a rough patch here. I agree. I hope you guys are right, because I have a lot of Lazzardo, but I am a little bit more open to benching him moving forward while he tries to figure this thing out.

Last name here is Teoscar Hernandez, who had three hits here on Wednesday, but his overall numbers have taken a dive. So he suffered a hamstring injury back in May, and in 49 games since returning from that injury on May 19th, Teosker Hernandez is hitting 209 with five homers, one steel, and a sub-600 OPS. That is a large majority of the season,

where he's still hitting the ball hard, but it comes with a 28% strikeout rate, a 50% ground ball rate. Maybe he's just not right, but what do you guys think about Teoska Hernandez and what's going on here? He's been terrible. His underlying numbers for the season are worse. And over his last 100 plate appearances, his ex-Wobos down to 289.

That's really bad. I think he's not hurt would be a reasonable explanation. Or he's not healthy, excuse me. I think that would be, that would make sense. I don't have a confirmation of that. But this whole Dodgers lineup outside of Shohay Otani kind of stinks right now. I like I'm not like even including show Hey Otani who's been unbelievable The last 30 days they are 27th in Woba in the majors Wow like that's that's that's a pretty long time

You're talking about I don't know a couple hundred played appearances for the team of couple I have no idea what number that would be eight 1800 play I'm not is it I shouldn't even guess is it possible that they all just they all grow old together but I don't mean that in the way people normally mean that phrase like they just in the notebook all their production all diminishes at the same time

because they reach that that cliff and like to Oscar Hernandez he's 32 himself that's not as old as Freddie Freeman or mooky bets but he's a free swinger and a lot of times those guys drop off earlier And so maybe those three were seeing legitimate decline from all three.

Of course, you could make the injury excuse for Freeman. You could sort of make it for bets. It's not an open and shut case. But it wouldn't surprise me if this is just the start of decline for all three of them. And then you got Max Muncie, who's probably been their third best hitter of this. I'm forgetting Will Smith, I guess. But he was driving the lineup for a while there. Max Muncie was

but he's pretty darn old too and in fact I think a lot of us assumed he was done prior to him wearing glasses and fixing everything so it is it is funny like this seeming juggernaut with the a lineup that seemed

insurmountable it's a very old lineup and yeah things could change quickly we may be seeing it as for Hernandez himself he was so good in April that I kind of just stuck them 16th, 17th, 17th in my outfield rankings and didn't really think about it for a long time after that.

I finally got him down to more like 30th now, seeing that it's basically done nothing since April. So are you guys more open to, I guess, in shallower leagues, at least benching to Oscar Hernandez right now? Sure. And points leagues. I think it's pretty easy calling points leagues, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I actually think it's totally reasonable. and let me preface this by reminding everyone, I am not a Dodgers fan, but I think it could just be circumstantial for all of them, that everyone here is just dealing with a different injury or something, right? Like, Tey Oscar with the hamstring, Freeman with the ankle,

and I think he hurt his quad in June or something like that too, and Mookie Betts with the stomach illness, and Tommy Edmund had the whatever injury he suffered, the ankle, and then he hasn't been the same since he came back too. So it's just like, I think all of them are just banged up outside of Otani, and he's been great. They are. Yeah, I mean, it's not, look, even going back to what I said about Muncie, like, we, everybody

kind of assumed, okay, this guy's 36, he just doesn't have it anymore, and glasses changed everything. So, we don't actually know what's going on. Maybe Freddie Freeman needs classes. We're just making the best guess with the information available to us. And, you know, truthfully, if you're putting, if you're injecting me with truth serum, I would say, my best guess is Freddie Freeman is probably going to be fine in the long run. Mookie Betz is probably a little bit diminished,

but still more or less will be fine in the long run. And Teoska Hernandez will be better the next two months than he's been the last two months. That's what the truth serum says. But I can see a worst case outcome. That seems plausible to me. I think Teasca Hernandez is probably the easiest to acquire right now. and I think I would actually try and buy low right now before. I assume many trade deadlines are approaching right now.

So maybe just try to buy really low on Tasker Hernandez. Let's run through some waiver wire options here from Wednesday. And we already spoke about Brandon Walter, who's up near the top of the list of Waverwire pitchers. Some shallow league names, anything here. Brandon Fott turned in another solid outing, this time against the Astros, five in a third innings, two runs, five strikeouts.

He had 11 whiffs on 89 pitches. continues to tinker with the pitch mix, more sinkers, more cutters. Maybe it's helped him. Last three starts, 177, ERA, 0.74 whip for Brandon Fott. Zach Eflin, solid in his return at the Guardian's five innings, two runs, five strikeouts to just one walk. Slade Cicconi turned in a quality start on the other side

against the Orioles six innings, two runs, two walks, two strikeouts. Anything to see here with Cicone, Eflin, and Brendan Fott. I don't understand fantasy baseball player's obsession with Brandon Fott This guy has had like a few four-start stretches over three years He's been awful all season I guess he's had a nice three-start stretch now So he's due for one more good one before it falls apart Like he has a 497 career ERA

We're three years in why is he 74% rostered still? I don't understand like he was like an okay prospect but we're not talking about like a top 10 prospect in baseball he was like a fringe top 100 guy if i'm remembering correctly and he's been mostly really bad at the major league level he has these like stretches or starts i know he had like three or four 10 strikeout games last year but like overall there there's nothing impressive in the skill set for brandon fodd he has a 622 expected er a he has been lucky to have a 476 ERA this season.

I do not understand why this guy is 74% rostered. There are like, I don't know, 70 pitchers I'd rather have than Brandon Fott at this point. That's where you rank him is like outside of the top 70. Yeah. I don't see much reason to rank him much higher than that. Who was I was arguing with before the season about this? I got to do a heated argument with someone. I'm guessing it wasn't Chris based on his reaction.

here. But like I called Fada bust and somebody really didn't like that. And it got pretty heated. I can't remember who it was. Was it like the Welsh? There's only one other person on the podcast. It may have been a guest. I don't know that it was you, Frank. I think I might have wrote him up as a sleeper. I don't know. I kind of like peripherally light Brandon Fata. I don't know that I was that adamant about it, but sounds like something I could have done. It's a possibility. I don't feel like you argue very much, Frank. Yeah, maybe I need to change that. You're too nice for that.

Maybe I need to change that, Scott. I got to start, you know, getting after it here. Maybe. All right. Anything with Eflin or Cicone? Eflin was throwing his curveball more, I think, which is usually a good thing. Especially when he was good in 2023. It was a big deal that his curveball was 2023, yeah, was his best pitch.

So maybe there's something there. He was not very good on his rehab assignment. He was pretty bad before his injury. So I'm not getting too excited about Eflin yet, but it was good to see him pitch well. And then, I don't know, Slade Sikoni kind of feels like a Brenna Fott clone to me. I don't think the pitcher is very good. But if these are actually his matchups next week, versus Colorado in Cleveland and against the twins. Yeah, that's fine.

Could work, maybe. He's already 53% rostered, so it's not like a profile with Slate Cicone, where I feel like I want to pound the table and say, this guy needs to be 80% rostered. Like, if you have him hang on to him, if you're in a points league and you need a two-star pitcher, it's okay to chase him. But, yeah, he's not in the brand. I would certainly rather have Brandon Walter, who's rostered less than him. And less. Yeah, not on the level of Walter for me. but he is interesting enough that I will,

I would like people to leave this podcast with a positive impression of Sikoni. Both of his breaking balls have very high whiff rates. So that's probably the most interesting thing I could say about him. I, you know, his, a guy most people listening hadn't heard of even a month ago. So that says a lot on its own. There is an underlying skepticism that is deserved there.

But I'm not totally dismissive of Slade Sikoni. And I think based on those matchups you listed, Frank, he's going to be among my streamer pitchers for the next couple weeks. All right, a couple more waiver wire pitchers in slightly deeper leagues. Mike Soroka took a tough luck loss against the Reds, five and two-thirds innings, one run, six strikeouts, his velocity. way down in this start, but managed to get some good results. Bailey Falter, a great start against the Tigers.

Seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks. And Chris Paddock, where did this come from? Great start at that vaunted Dodgers lineup. Six innings, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks for him. Any of these names matter? Paddock, Bailey Falter, and Mike Soroka. Well, I don't know if you've heard, but the Dodgers lineups pretty bad right now.

So I think that explains Chris Paddock having a good start. I, Lights Sox are great, Dodgers are terrible. If not for the velocity being way down, which is alarming for Mike Soroka, I would have been fully ready to say I'd rather have him than Brandon fought,

Slate's a Coney, a couple other guys. Zach Eflin, I think he's pitched much better than his actual results so far. But obviously, if his fastball velocity is down three miles per hour, I can't really make the case for going out and adding Mike Soroka right now.

It is just one start, though, with the velocity. So I don't. And the results are okay, yeah. It's only really troubling when it becomes a trend. All right, let's quickly run through some waiver wire hitters here. And Chris, Royce Lewis, I don't know, might be turning things up here. Two for two with a walk and his fifth home run. Last four games, he has seven hits, three homers, six RBI.

and one steal. So, look, we've talked about him before. Maybe he's finally healthy. We know there's upside here. We need third base replacements. You lost ESOC Paredes. You lost Alec Bohm. You know, Royce Lewis could still be out there.

A couple other names here. Ezekiel Tovar showing off some power since returning. Five games in the second half. He's got six hits and two home runs. Was a productive player last year. And Matt Shaw continues to impress over the past week. Six games here in the second half. So far, he's nine first.

19 with three homers, two steals, 14, 21 OPS. Now's your chance, Chris. Matt Shaw, Tovar, Royce Lewis. Yeah, Royce Lewis, I think it's very simple. We've seen enough upside from him that the fact that he looks locked in right now, I think he needs to be universally rostered just in case he goes on another one of those tears the rest of the way. He might get hurt again.

I know that's what you're going to say, but like, if he's healthy, he's been mostly very good at the major league level. even if he's not a superstar, he should be very useful. Ezekiel Tovar, I'm kind of surprised at how low his roster rate has remained since his return. I know he hasn't done a ton and it's only been a handful of games, but he was like a top 125 pick coming into the season. I thought he was drafted. In roto. Yeah.

But I thought he was overdrafted. But I'm surprised that there has been, I know his overall numbers are not very good, but he had a number. 9.53 in OPS in May. He was starting to turn things around. So I do think Ezekiel Tovar's roster rate is probably a little low. His expected stats are terrific. All the trend stuff looks good, you know, in his return. So I think he's a little under-rastered.

And then Matt Shaw, you know, we were all high on him coming into the season. He has three home runs in the last five games. And I want to buy into it. but his biggest problem all season has been an inability to impact the ball. And despite three home runs in his past five games, there's really not a lot going on in the quality of contact. For some reason, his home run today is not showing up on Stackass. It wasn't tracked.

It looked like it was about 380 feet from where it landed over the fence, which means he still has not hit a home run over 400 feet among his five homers. his home run exit velocities the previous two were like 99 and 102 miles per hour. I know you don't get more points if it's hit hard or hit far, but when we're trying to predict moving forward, if you just don't have power, it makes it hard to buy into suddenly becoming a power hitter. I still like Matt Shaw in the long run,

but I haven't seen enough in this little run in the underlying data to think that he's fixed his problems, unfortunately. All right, I mentioned up at the top that it was a fun night for the White Sox future. Kyle Teal had a huge game, four for five with his first career home run. He is hitting 277 with a 763 OPS early on. Average XIVA velocity looks pretty good here for Kyle Teal,

but as we've talked about all season, there's no shortage of interesting catchers. He's 22% rostered, and I guess a name you still could look at in two catcher leagues. and Colson Montgomery, two for five with a double and his second home run, second home run in as many nights, two nights back to back here,

five RBI for him. And, you know, he's holding his own, obviously two great games in a row influenced the numbers quite a bit. But the underlying plate discipline stuff is very scary early on for Colson Montgomery. Yes, but not as bad as it could be. I mean, this was a guy who was struggling

to get to even a third. 30% strikeout rate in the minors, and it was so bad he got sent to the Complex League. Consensus top 50 prospect, Colson Montgomery, for a long time. But he was struggling so badly to make contact early on that he had to go to the Complex League. And he came back, it was better, but it was only like 28%. The fact he's exceeding that in the majors, just a 26% strikeout rate is surprising in a good way, especially given the difficulty curve for hitters in recent years. I've talked about it a lot.

I feel like you can't really make a judgment on these guys until they get two months of uninterrupted play. So to see the impact Colson Montgomery is making right away, I wouldn't have predicted it. These two balls, the double in the home run here on Wednesday, are his two hardest hit balls so far, the double 112 miles per hour, the home run 109.8.

I mean, those are, he really whacked them good. And not the issue Matt Shaw is having. So if he can keep that strikeout rate between 25 and 30%, he's a guy who walks at a nice rate, it's been 10% in the majors. I think just because he took such a difficult developmental path, we're going to be on the edge with Colson Montgomery for a long time. but there is clearly talent there. And I could see him finishing strong enough

that we like him going into next season. I do not disagree with a word that you said, Scott. If he can keep his strikeout rate in this range, I'm just going to point out that his zone contact and swinging strike rate profile like a hitter that's more like a 35% strikeout kind of guy. It feels very Zach Gell-offy to me. Yeah.

So if he could somehow keep this trick up where he's only striking out 25, 26% sure, but it's, you know, with a 19% swinging strike rate, I just don't think that's likely. So happy to be wrong. We'll see what Colson Montgomery can do moving forward. Let's wrap up with some leftovers here. And hey, real quick, quick thought on each of these starting pitchers.

Lucas Gilito ran to a brick wall at the Phillies, four innings, five runs allowed with four homers allowed. What do we think here? Geelito, he was great before this. So like, I don't know, I don't want to bury the guy, but, you know, he kind of did the G-Lito thing here. Yeah, too bad starts in a row. I remain skeptical.

I think his 397 ERA is basically right on, right online. His XERA is about a run worse than that, though, so there could still be room for more regression here. Sean Manaya picked up his first win of the season against the Angels five innings, one-run, five strikeouts, did have 12 whiffs on 82 pitches, but the velocity way down in this one, and it has trended down in each of his three starts or three outings. Some of those were relief outings. Scott, what are we thinking here?

Sean Mania. Well, this was the most extreme drop in velocity, and I will note, I don't know if you remember, but I pointed out that on his rehab assignment, his velocity was down a couple miles per hour too. And so I was relieved when he came to the majors, and that didn't seem to be an issue anymore, but here it shows up in his third adding.

So, yeah, I mean, kind of like Mike Soroka, got a good result. I think especially because Manaya is kind of a new pitcher, you know, he has, he had the 12 starts last year where he was throwing from the much lower arm angle, and now he has three more. So we're talking about a 15-star sample. We don't know exactly how much velocity he knows. needs to be successful like this or what even success looks like.

And so you have to keep that in mind. I'm curious to see how the velocity looks next time. Maybe it bounces back and, you know, all systems go. But it's not something you want to see. I think it's not actionable either way, you know? Yeah. Nobody's going to trade for Shamanaya. I don't think you can drop him.

So I think you just hold him and hope it's good. Sandy Alcansara had one of his better starts of the season up against the Padres, seven innings, four hits, one unearned run with four strikeouts to zero walks, but still give up 10 hard hits in this game, 91.6 average exit velocity. Chris, I know the final line looks great. You don't want to take anything away from that, but I still remain a little bit, I don't know, not so, not overly enthused based on how much hard contact and lack of whiffs were here.

Yeah, I don't think we've seen enough from Sandy Alton. Contra to be optimistic at this point. We'll take any positive signs, and this was a pretty good start, but it wasn't a dominant start. You know, he didn't miss a ton of bats. He didn't get a lot of strikeouts. Like you said, he got hit pretty hard. It's a step in the right direction, but it's not certainly not enough to say that Sandy

Alcantra is back and that he's, you know, a must start guy moving forward. He's not even close to that. Some hitting leftovers, Rafael Devers had his first big game with the Giants, three for five with a double dong and four RBI. O'Neill Cruz had himself a nice game, two for three with two steals. But, you know, I hadn't realized he had an awesome April. It's a sub-700 OPS with a 35% strikeout rate since the beginning of May. Yep, strike-aright's gone way in the wrong direction.

Like to Oscar Hernandez, it's been a long time that O'Neill Cruz has kind of been just actively bad. Pete Alonzo broke out of his slump with a long home run 114 mile per hour exit velocity 439 feet for him Vinny Pass Guantino Vinny Pee! Baby! Had himself a big game 3 for 4

with a double dong 4 RBI awful April. He's kind of done the reverse O'Neill Cruz. He's been great since the start of May. Salvador Perez continued his huge July where he's hitting 368 with nine home runs and a 1264 OPS.

Christian Walker, small sample, but showing some signs here early on in the second half has multiple hits in four of his last five games. The one where he didn't have multiple hits, he had a home run. So maybe Christian Walker finally coming around. Haraldo Perdomo had a four-hit game. Bryce Terang clearly was listening last night. Went three for five with two runs and two RBI.

Aaron Judge hit another homer. Shoaheotani hit another homer. Corey Seeger hit another homer. And Junior Camerero also hit another homer. Some pitching leftovers, Here, I'll just say some names. If you have any thoughts, go for it. Seth Lugo, Chris Bassett, Dillon Sees.

Anything stand out from those three? I'm not allowed to talk about Seth Lugo anymore. No, you aren't. Nothing that interesting. Yeah. Dillen Seas, I mean, it's just... I can't wait to draft him as like the 27th pitcher next year. Yeah, we were talking about that at the game today.

I just... I know this is not how you're supposed to play fantasy, so everyone with a level head just do exactly the opposite of what I'm about to say but as a scorned Dylan C's drafter this year I just don't think I'll be able to to bring myself to draft him again next year.

I'm going to click that in the eighth round, ninth round every single time. And you're going to reap all the rewards and I'm going to be... I mean it's... I'll draft him again the following year when he has an awesome season after next year. I think we're getting ahead of ourselves even with that. Like it's distinctly possible CIS is the best pitcher in baseball for the next two

months. His periphers are all still really good. Everything about how we typically value pitchers and try to predict their performance moving forward suggests that Dillon Seas is still very good. Emotional Frank has had enough

of Dillen Seas, so I'll just put that out there. Call to the bullpen here for the Marlins. Calvin Foshae got the final five outs for his ninth save. Ronnie Enriquez was unavailable. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz, recorded the final four outs for his 21st save for the Astros,

Josh Hayder struck out two for his 27th. For the D-Backs, Kevin Ginkle got the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a run on three hits, took his fourth loss of the season. The D-Backs bullpen just continues to be an absolute mess. For the Dodgers, no Tanner Scott here. Kirby Yates entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead. He walked three in a row. He was relieved by Alex Vescia, who induced a double play, but then also allowed a single.

Two runs were charged to Kirby Yates. The Dodgers did wind up with. winning that game because on the other side. For the twins, Yohan Duran was unavailable. Griffin Jacks got the ninth inning. With a one-run lead, he gave up two runs on two walks and two hits, took his fifth blown save and fifth loss of the season. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Clausset struck out two for his 23rd save.

For the Rangers, Robert Garcia, struck out two for his eighth save. For the Red Sox, how about this? Our oldest Chapman was brought into the seventh inning with two outs. Runner on second, one-runner-run lead. Biggest spot in the game, Kyle Schwerber up, so I get it lefty-on-lefty. Chapman did get Schwerber out. He stayed on for the 8th, where he gave up a game-tying home run to J.T. Real Muto.

The Red Sox would eventually win, and it was Brennan Bernardino, who closed it out in extras for his first save of the season. And for the White Sox, somebody named Dan Altavilla got the final inning of work, and he picked up his second save of the season. don't think the White Sox bullpen really matters all that much. To stream or not to stream for Thursday, just five games on the schedule. We have Charlie Morton at the Guardians, Logan Allen up against the Orioles, Eric Lauer at the Tigers.

It's probably it. I don't mind Morton. I know his last start was pretty bad, but that one's fine. I don't, I just don't love the matchup for Lauer. I know he's been very good. I still don't quite buy it. The Tigers lineup is slumping quite a bit right now. Yeah, that's fair.

Alan is decent. He isn't decent. He has been decent, and the Orioles matchup is pretty good. So I don't really want to stream any of them, but Alan is probably my favorite for Thursday. I love that after, I don't know, two years of doing this segment, Scott still feels the need to preface every one of his answers with. I don't really like these guys.

I wouldn't play them. But if you want to play them, I think everyone knows by now, Scott, that you don't actually like these pictures. No, they don't. People still get mad about the streamers sometimes, though. I mean, yeah, these are the players we have to choose from. So, I mean, you know, if you want to play this game, it is a dangerous one. So I just know what you're getting yourself into.

Yes, exactly. Should I just create, like, a disclaimer button? Just press it whenever we start the segment like, disclaimer, we don't like any of these pitchers, but you can use them anyway. Well, sometimes we do like them. Rarely. Very rarely, very rarely. Kind of like on Friday.

I don't know that we'll like many of these. Emmachian, we like the pitcher, but he's at the Red Sox. Brian Beow. Just don't know if he's going to pitch deep enough. Bayo facing the Dodgers. I don't know. Their lineup is terrible right now.

Adrian Houser up against the Cubs. Don't love that. Jeffrey Springs at the Astros. Zebby Matthews, interesting pitcher gets the Nationals. I don't know. I like them more than Thursday, but I still don't like them.

That's better talent. Brian Bayo and Zebby Matthews, be my top two choices. I agree. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye.

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