Fantasy Baseball Today - Noah Cameron's Great Start, Pitcher Questions & Is Bryce Harper Washed? (7/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Is Zac Gallen back from the dead (2:20)? ... Noah Cameron dominated the Pirates (8:03). ... News (15:25): Hunter Greene will not make his scheduled rehab start on Tuesday. ... Yu Darvish made his season debut (24:51). ... Addison Barger is getting hot again (33:51). ... We have pitcher questions regarding Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Freddy Peralta and others (37:22). ... Is Bryce Harper washed (53:35)? ... Did you realize these hitters were heating up (56:25)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (59:48). 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. Hello, welcome into Fantasy Baseball Day on Tuesday, July 8th. I am Frank Stample joined by Chris Towers.

Today on the show, Noah Cameron dominated the Pirates. Is Bryce Harper washed? Is he done? I don't know. Plus, I have some pitcher questions and much more, but let's jump in. All right, Chris, since the fantasy funeral for Zach Allen, he is two for two and quality starts. What do you think? I mean, not just quality starts. This is the most starts and in a two-start stretch for Zach Allen, I think, since April of 2023. He struck out 10 in his previous start. Nine on my first. Monday against a Padres team that does not strike out very much. Six innings, one earned run, one walk, 19 strikeouts over the past two starts. It was almost easier when he was just bad, right?

Because then, because it had been, what, a 575 ERA three starts ago. He had had a 488 ERA over the past calendar year. It would have been easier if Zach Allen had just condes. continued to stink and we could just slowly drop him. And now he goes out and has two incredible starts back to back. And we have to really consider what this means for Zach Gallen. Now today his velocity was up across the board. And this is something that the previous start, his fastball velocity wasn't up,

but his cutter and change up were in this one fastball velocity was up. The curve and change up and cutter were up even more than the fastball. So maybe there's something going on there, but it's hard because when you look at it, the biggest things that he's done is the fastball and curveball have just been really, really good. The curveball in particular has just been outstanding. He has over the past two starts has thrown his curveball just 15% of the time in the strike zone. And despite that, I think he has a 38% called plus swinging strike rate with it because he's generated 15 swinging strikes on just the curveball across the past two starts.

It's a 54% swinging strike rate in these two starts. That's really impressive. And then the four seamer, he is just doing a really good job of filling up the strike zone. He has a 38% called plus swinging strike rate in those two starts. He's filling up the strike zone, 62% zone rate for the four seamer. And that combination right there, a lot of four seam strikes. A lot of curveballs buried right below the zone where hitters are being enticed to swing at them, I think explains most of why things have gone right for Zach Allen.

But, and of course there's a butt here because Zach Allen has been pretty mediocre over the past calendar year. His overall average exit velocity allowed over the past two starts is 95.9 miles per hour. It's 95.7 on the four seamer. So that seems to be the give and take, right? He's throwing a lot of strikes. He's generating called strikes. He's even generating some whiffs, 20% whiff rate on the four seamer today or over the past two starts. It's just can he do that without getting crushed?

Well, he's got a 38% strikeout rate the past two starts. So yes, if you have a 38% strikeout rate, you can pretty much do anything. And you're going to be a good pitcher. It's really hard not to be a very good pitcher. when you have a 38% strikeout rate. The problem is a 38% strikeout rate is obviously unsustainable for Zach Allen. His career rate is 26%.

His career high is 28%. So what if he's a 26% strikeout rate guy moving forward? That's his career rate. That'd be pretty good. Is he an ace if he's giving up 96 mile per hour average exit velocity? No, probably not. And so it would not be fair at all to say two steps forward, one step back over these past two starts.

This is like seven steps forward and his shoelace is untied and you're worried he's going to trip, right? Like it's not the positives far outweigh the negatives over these past two starts. And if you were rightly looking at dropping Zach Allen before these two starts, there's no way you can. You've got to hold on them. You've got to see where this goes. But.

I'm not sure I feel super confident saying, hey, Zach Allen's back to being a top 25 starting pitcher. I wouldn't say that at all. But it's the first time in over a year where we've had a reason to be optimistic about Zach Allen. And so I'll take that at the very least. Yeah, it would be irresponsible to just say, all right, Zach Allen's back,

but as I said after his last start, this is a step in the right direction. Yes. If you look at the last two starts combined, it's 13 innings, one earned run, 19 strikeouts to just one walk. The hard contact is still scary, obviously, but if you can't give up hard contact and walks. So if you can limit the walks and get strikeouts while allowing hard contact, you might be able to kind of tow that line and still

have some success here. But, you know, if you're not getting whiffs and you're allowing walks and you're allowing hard contact, I mean, that's just an obvious recipe for disaster. That's how you get what Zach Allen was doing for the first three months of the season. But now, he's getting whiffs over his last two and he's limiting walks. So, you know, obviously you'll take what he's doing right now and he's at the Angels this weekend. Good spot. You know, they do hit some home runs. They, you know, can hit the ball hard as well.

But they're also prone to striking out quite a bit as well. So that seems to be a good landing spot here for Zach Allen going into the All-Star break. We'll see how he does in that one. But a very positive trend right now for Zach Allen. Player of the night for me is going to be Noah Cameron, who is great. up against the Pirates, seven innings, two runs with seven strikeouts to one walk. He had 18 whiffs on 109 pitches. This is the first time he's even completed six innings since June 5th. He failed to complete five innings and back-to-back starts before this. So it's not like he was

getting crushed, giving up a ton of runs or anything. He was a little inefficient recently, but obviously back on track here, worth noting, great matchup against the Pirates, obviously. And you know what? I've been impressed by Noah Cameron this year. I know you would like to see more whiffs out of him, but when you look at the individual pitches, I have questions about the fastball. His other four secondary pitches, they all look pretty good.

Somewhere between good and great on those four pitches. So I think that there are pieces here for Noah Cameron to work with, and obviously it's a good ballpark to pitch in, and he's got pretty good control, doesn't really walk many. So I like what we've seen over all this year. It's a 256 ERA. It's a 0.96 whip.

Underlying numbers say that, you know, those numbers should probably be a little bit higher. But coming off this start, 74% rostered, Chris, I kind of think Noah Cameron is in that mix. I'm not going to say I'm going to put him ahead of Edward Cabrera and names like that and Emmett Sheehan, but I think he's kind of in that mix, maybe one tier just below those guys.

What do you think? Yeah, I would take Sheehan. would take Cabrera. I'm sure there were a couple other pitchers that we had put in that group. Ryan Nelson? Ryan Nelson, I think, is closer to Noah Cameron because I think both are not going to be very good strikeout sources. So strikeouts aren't everything, obviously.

But the reason we focus so much on strikeouts, especially when we're talking about rhodo value is, one, strikeouts are the best way to get out. You give up a strikeout, or you strike someone out, you're almost certainly not giving up a run. Whereas you give up a lazy, you know, fly ball, that can sometimes turn into runs. And so I understand that we focus a lot on strikeouts. It's because that's the best thing a pitcher can do.

And in Roto, guys who strike batters out, all else being equal, are more valuable than guys who don't get a lot of strikeouts. So just if you're comparing two pitchers with identical ratios, one has a 25% strikeout rate, one has a 20% strikeout rate, the guy with the 25% strikeout rate's better. And so that's why we focus so much on that. And I will point out, yes, he had 18 swinging strikes. It was what, eight strikeouts today, seven strikeouts and seven innings. The pirates are bad. The third lowest Wobah against lefties and the second highest strikeout rate. So that's about as good a matchup for a left-handed pitcher as you can get. In today's game, maybe, I'm sure the White Sox have a high. Herwoba against lefties than the pirates do somehow. So take that with a cran of salt and I'll say, you know, Cameron's what, 74% rostered?

Yeah. I think that's probably fine. Like maybe it could be a little higher when the matchups are good or in a two-start week. But I don't necessarily look at the skill set, you know, the 389 FIP. The XERA is actually better, but, you know, take that with a grain of salt because it's a 329 expected Wobon contact and we're dealing with a very small sample size. I think 80% rostered is probably fine for Noah Cameron. You know, talking it through, I think him versus Ryan Nelson is a close one.

It's not, they're not similar pitchers, but I think in terms of results, the results are similar. I have similar expectations for both of those guys. So I think I would lean with Noah Cameron. There's, you know, some more prospect pedigree there with him versus a Ryan Nelson. but Nelson has pitched very well to his credit. I would take Edward Cabrera ahead. I would take Sheehan.

Joe Boyle's a little bit tougher because if you're in a league with quality starts or you need volume, that's a little bit tougher. But just in terms of ratios and strikeouts, I think Joe Boyle is going to be pretty reliable. So depending on your league context, you know, if you just need ratios and strikeouts, I would go with Boyle. If you need quality starts or a little bit more length, I would probably lean with Noah Cameron there.

But go ahead. I'm looking at some pitchers who are. in roughly the same or higher rates, and I would drop Drew Rasmussen for Noah Cameron, given just the concerns about the workload for Nora Cameron or about for Drew Rasmussen. Brady Singer, 83%. Brady Singer, that feels like an easy one. He was a two-star pitcher this week with a matchup against the Marlins and Rockies, I'm pretty sure. So that's why he was that rostered, but I don't think he needs to be that rostered moving forward.

Clayton Kershaw? That's a tough one. He keeps getting the job done, but I don't really. buy it. So I think I would take Cameron over him. Will Warren is a tough one because I think the upside's higher for him, but the results have been much better for Noah Cameron. Dustin May, another one. I think he's more talented, but I think I'd rather have Noah Cameron. Same. Mitch Keller's really hot. He's slightly lower rostered. If you Darvish and Noah Cameron were both available on the waiver right now, I think I'd take Noah Cameron over him. That is close.

because it's the name. Yeah, but I mean, Darvish still pitched well last year, you know, and his velocity looked fine here. He just has not been able to stay healthy. Yeah. That's true. I just worry it's a little bit of Max Scherzer, you know, not the same, but...

Yeah, 331 ERA 107 whip for Garvish last year. 8.6K for 9. That's pretty good. Ah, that one's close. I know I'm talking up Noah Cameron. I think I would actually take Darvish. That's fine. Yeah. No, but I think all that to say that I think the 74% roster rate is probably fine for Noah Cameron. It doesn't strike me as egregiously low. All right. Before we hit our first break, just a big thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's run through the news and notes. And Hunter Green will not make a rehab start at AAA Tuesday.

originally planned as he felt renewed tightness in his right groin. He did have an MRI which did not reveal any significant damage. Terry Francona said Green is likely experiencing fatigue, which is, I mean, not great, Chris. We get a little bit of a setback here from Hunter Green where, you know, maybe we would have expected him coming right out of the All-Star break to be in the rotation. Now I think we're probably looking at maybe late July or early August right now.

Yeah, it's totally speculative at this point. Hopefully it's just a short-term setback and he's back out there in a few days, but it's been a really troublesome recovery, you know, and not just this, right? Because it was a groin injury earlier in the season. He comes back from it. He made what, two starts, three starts, and then goes back on the IEL. So it just... And he didn't look right when he came back either.

Yeah, so it's been a really tough couple of months for him with this injury. and then the back being connected to it is, yeah, it's a little concerning for Hunter Green. Katel Marte was scratched from the lineup Monday with right groin tightness, and if there is one knock on him, it's, you know, soft tissue injuries that he's dealt with throughout his career. I am seeing now that Tori Lavulo said there's a pretty good chance that Katel Marte plays on Tuesday.

But, hey, man, we need him healthy for the second half, so don't rush him back. rather just take the rest of the week off, you know? Yeah. I mean, the problem there is we found out so late, it was, you know, maybe an hour before game time or something. So in leagues where I had Marte, I couldn't even get them out of the lineup, which, you know, was unfortunately. Unfortunately.

The D-Vax injuries continue to pile up here. They also play Shelby Miller on the IL, this one out of nowhere, with a right forearm strain, retroactive to July 6th. And no surprise, they had a safe opportunity right away here on. Monday. It was Kevin Ginkle who got the ninth inning with a three run lead. He did pick up the save some help from his defense too. I saw an

awesome catch from Alec Thomas in that one. Kevin Ginkle has closing experience. He also has an ERA over nine, Chris. He's been terrible this season. His velocity's down about a mile per hour on his fastball. It's down like three miles per hour on his slider.

He's been horrible. But he's the closer right now for a decent team, a team that we, I think, is at least a 500 team. So I think he's worth adding. Interesting to see what the debacks wind up doing here at the deadline. Yeah. There are four and a half games out of the wild card spot. It's not insurmountable, but I guess if they're just looking in the mirror and being honest with everything that's

happened this year and losing Corbyn Burns and the way the bullpen has performed, it's probably not going to happen but I don't know crazier things have happened last year the Tigers sold and they were like the best team in the second half so yeah they're a team that I mean who would they sell

you know Suarez is an impending free agent that makes sense right there Naylor is as well those two I mean I think you get a pretty good haul for those guys those two make sense and it clears the way for Jordan Lawler I think trading both of them would be a lot for a team that still wants to

compete. But yeah, I think they could get a pretty good package for either of those guys if they wanted to move them. I will point out, you know, because we talked about it on last night's podcast, Corby and Carroll had three batted balls over 100 miles per hour today, 107.8, 101.9, 107.5, plus another one that was 93. So that's a very good sign given our concerns that he had been rushed back from the wrist injury. Gowan pending free agent. I mean, I guess they could shop him too if they wanted to. Tyler Glass now is making his return Wednesday in Milwaukee, likely to play it safe for fantasy purposes.

Let's see what he does in that one before we go ahead and start him. Alex Bregman will be activated from the IL sooner rather than later. That comes from Alex Cora, and he'll go through a heavy workout on Tuesday and could return as soon as this weekend. Again, that is Alex Bregman. Brandon Lowe was out of the lineup Monday due to left-side sorn. Another one, be careful with this guy. Lengthy injury history, but he's having a great season.

Christian Walker was placed on the paternity list, which means he'll miss between one and three games. Reese Hoskins was officially placed in the IL with a grade two left thumb sprain. The brewers were called Andrew Vaughn, who they acquired from the White Sox earlier this season. And what do you know? He homered off of Yoshinobu Yamamoto in his very first played appearance with the Brewers. He finished one for two with a walk, home run, three-ar-reysed. RBI and he was actually performing pretty well in the Brewer's minor league system. So I think just the name in NL only leagues for now, Chris, but if he plays every day,

you know, maybe becomes a like 15-team mixed roto name, something like that. Yeah, I think it's unlikely that he matters much, but yeah. To Asker Hernandez and Tommy Edmund are both aiming to return to the Dodgers lineup on Wednesday. Michael King was transferred to the 60-day IL, which is more procedural than anything just to open up a roster spot. Luis Robert is expected to be activated from the IL within the next few days. Masataka Yoshita will most likely be activated from the IL on Wednesday. Just a name for Deep Leagues for now. The Cardinals are having internal discussions about Michael McGrievey replacing Eric Fetty in the rotation

and potentially starting Saturday against the Braves. I think McGreevy is mildly interesting for deeper leagues. He's someone who has pretty good minor league numbers, gets a lot of ground balls. There's not a lot of strikeout upside here, but just kind of profiles as a, you know, SP3, SP4 at the major league level. The Rockies option, Chase Dolander to AAA,

and he currently has a 668 ERA and a 156 whip. So as great as he was in the minors, Coors Field, and the Rockies strike again. it's just an impossible place for a pitcher to pitch. Casey Schmidt was activated from the IL. Tyler Fitzgerald was optioned back to AAA, and we do have some prospect updates here. The Cardinals promoted JJ Weatherholt from AA to AAA.

In 62 games at AA, he hit 300 with seven homers, 14 steals, an 892 OPS, and more walks than strikeouts. He's just 22 years old and was the seventh overall pick in last year's draft. Chris, not a name for this year, But I think potentially opening day or early next season, we could see JJ Weatherholt with the Cardinals. Yeah, I mean, if he holds his own at AAA, I think you should expect him to be on the opening day roster next season.

It's not clear where they would probably have to move Nolan Aronado before then because they have Mason win at shortstop. He's a better defensive shortstop than Weatherholt, although Weatherhold is someone who does seem like he'll play shortstop in the long term, or at least can. so maybe he's playing third base or second base next year, but they're still, they're doing this like on the,

on the fly, geez. You ever just, yeah, all right, that's fine. I'm fine. I'm doing okay. On the fly rebuild that's actually looking like sort of successful for them. They desperately need some pitchers to click, but yeah, the Cardinals have a kind of interesting core and actually some some redundancies right now. Yeah. The Cardinals were pretty

much an afterthought coming into this season. That's why everyone had them selling off Aeronado. They're a game and a half out of a wild card spot right now. And so yeah. To be fair, they were trying to sell Aeronado. Yeah. Very, very hard. It was not like some. In fact, they had a deal done with the Astros. Yes. It was not like everybody wants them to trade Nolan Aronado. They wanted to trade Nolan Aronado as much as anyone. Yeah. They just couldn't find a taker for him. But some of their young guys have played well this season and, you know, just overall, it's been a, that's been pretty impressive. A better year than expected for the St. Louis Cardinals. And then the Tigers promoted Max Clark, Kevin McGonagall, and Hoseway Bersenio from high A to

AA. Those guys are still a little bit further away. But I've listened to some prospect podcast recently and And people are very excited about Kevin McGonigold, potentially being like the number one prospect in baseball over the next year or something like that. Let's get into Waverwire pitchers from Monday's action. We already mentioned that you Darvish made his season debut. We didn't actually list off the line. Here's what he did.

Three and two thirds innings, two runs. Three walks, five strikeouts had 12 whiffs on 63 pitches. He threw 65 of his pitches for strikes. He limited hard contact. He did the usual Darvish thing. He threw eight different pitches in this one. And his velocity was fine. It was actually, you know, the sinker and fastball were actually slightly up from where they were last year.

So 73% rostered gets the Phillies next time out. Wouldn't want to use him there. But yeah, I still think Darvish can be viable. And maybe even more so than just like a matchups play. I still think there's some talent there. So we spoke about him earlier, Chris. I like him a little bit more than Noah Cameron, but I still think I, would have Darvish behind Cabrera, Sheehan, and probably Joe Boyle.

I think so, yeah. I think that makes sense. My biggest concern is just that he's not going to be able to hold up, but, you know, it's fun. You look at the eight pitch mix, I think, that he had, and his movement profile on basically everything was different than last season. And I don't even know where to begin in analyze. that. Like, what do you do with like, well, his sweeper had five more inches of sweep and his slider had five more inches of slide and his splitter had, it's just like that he throws so many pitches. I don't understand. I don't know how you do that. So he looked like himself. You know, that doesn't mean that Udarvis is going to be an ace. I think that's extremely unlikely. But, you know, a mid to high three ZRA and decent strikeout numbers. I think that's perfectly reasonable to expect from him. Yep. What about?

Landon Roop. He was okay against the Phillies, five innings, one run, three strikeouts here, and he has allowed just a total of three earned runs over his last four outings. He also just has not been getting many strikeouts. He's got a 339 ERA, a 146 whip. He kind of feels just like a deeper points league spark, but anything shallower than that, the whip is so bad. I can't use him in a Categories League or anything like that. Yeah, no, he's relying on his curveball less as the season goes on. And that's his best pitch, too. Yeah, by far. It's a 40% whiff rate pitch and has great results on balls and play.

It's just, it's a really hard pitch to command because it's a big slow curveball. It's like a 75-mile-hour curveball. And so that's always been my takeaway when watching Land and Raup. Rup. Rup. Rup. Rup. Jeez. Third time's a charm. is just that

early in the season he was throwing that as his primary pitch and it's just it got him into so many bad counts because that's a really hard pitch to throw consistently for strikes and I think we're seeing that that approach was unsustainable

but I don't know how much upside there is if he has to throw the change up about as often as he does the curveball so that's my concern only four whiffs in this start I think think Landa Roop. Roop. You got it right.

Rup. I'm tired. Yeah. It's like imagine his name just has a G on the front. Yeah. I think he's just a streamer. Yeah, I think that's fair too. Some names in deeper leagues Richard Fitz, a solid start against the Rockies, five and two-thirds innings, three unearned runs with six strikeouts, had 14 whiffs on 91 pitches.

Jansen Junk, who apparently is developing some kind of cult following. because I have people tweeting at me about Jansen Junk. Turned in a quality start at the Reds. Six innings, just one hit, one unearned run with three strikeouts at the Reds. And Cader Montero of the Tigers, a strong spot start here against Tampa Bay. Six innings, one run with four strikeouts. Very deeply named Chris, but do any stand out? Jansen Junk, Richard Fitz, and Cader Montero.

Fitz is mildly interesting. He's got a four-seamer that can miss some bats, a sweeper that can miss a lot more bats. The problem is he's gotten hit really hard when he doesn't miss bats this season. I don't think that's likely to change. 432 expected Wobon contact. 569 expected ERA for the season. That is really, really bad.

So I think it's just deep league. And look, I know that Janssen Junk, I think part of what it is is Janssen Junk has a really high, induced vertical break on his foreseamer and people get excited when they see that in today's game. And I want to say, I've seen a couple of people tweet it that Jansen Junk had the lowest fit in baseball entering today's start. Cool is my response to that. I don't think this approach is going to last at all. He has a good fast. ball that doesn't really miss a lot of bats but it does generate some weak contact i don't think anything else here is particularly special i think the stuff is really bad if you look at the various

like stuff plus models on fan graphs he rates out pretty well mostly because his location metrics look really good he's throwing a ton of pitches in the strike zone right now like a 59% rate of pitches in the strike zone overall. That is a great way to avoid walks and a great way to give up a lot of loud contact. And he has a 419 expected Wobon contact on the season. That's really bad. He has an actual Wobon contact of like 3.43, which is very good.

I don't see any reason to think this is sustainable. Even in this one, I was looking it up. He had four batted balls with an average. XBA over 500 today. Ground out, line out, single ground out. That, that's not a skill, you know? Like, we know, we're 125 years into the history of Major League Baseball. We are like almost 40 years into the like era of understanding Babbat.

We know this is not sustainable what Jansen Junk's doing. He gets the Orioles this week. Oh, I forgot to mention. He has had like the, have you looked at his schedule? No. I don't know if any pitcher in Major League history has ever had a more favorable nine-star stretch. The Reds today were the first time he faced an above-average lineup in Wobah against

right-handed pitchers. It's been angels, giants, Rockies away from Corse Field, pirates, nationals, Braves, giants, twins, Reds. You can't ask for a better schedule. than what Jansen Junk has had. I wanted to give him a fair chance because he's been very impressive, the results have been good,

we've been getting questions about it. I don't think there's anything here. Like if you want to stream him against the Orioles this weekend, that's fine, the Orioles are not a good lineup. I don't have any faith in Jansen Junk being fantasy relevant at all moving forward. I mostly agree with you, but I will just bring up looking at,

pitcher list. They have this PLV metric, which is kind of an all-encompassing metric for specific pitches. And Jansen Junk's fastball before this start, ranked in the 89th percentile, his slider ranked in the 94th,

his curveball in the 90th, and his sweeper in the 95th. So do with that what you will. I'm just passing information along. I don't know that it means anything, but... Yeah, I was... When I was looking into it, it was all, it looked very much to be about the location metrics.

The stuff rated out very poorly and the location metrics rated out as some of the best in baseball. I don't know, maybe he can get away with it. I don't see any reason to believe he will. Yeah, I mean, speaking of location, he has just four total walks in 43 and a third innings, which we've never seen control anywhere close to this for Jansen Junk. So look, he's doing some things. right now, NO only leagues, sure. I mean, deeper mixed leagues,

maybe in the right matchups, but this is one of those names that could just kind of like blow up and erase everything in the blink of an eye. That's my expectation. There's going to be some start where he gives up three home runs and it's going to undo it all. Quick look at some waiver wire hitters from Monday's action. Addison

Barger did it again. We've talked a lot about Addison Barger, one for four with his 12th home run. Last nine games, he has four home runs and one steal. So there was a bit of a lull there. I think in maybe mid to late June, but he's picking things back up. Addison Barger is, and the data looks great. Again, we've talked a lot about him.

73% rostered, and he's one of the most added hitters on CBS right now, as he should be. Two other names in deeper leagues. Victor Caratini stayed hot. Brought his name up a bunch recently as well. Last 15 games, he's been batting 296 with six home runs, 18 RBI, and a 953 OPS. So deeper two catcher leagues, Victor, Carrotini is, he's in the mix.

And Tommy Fam, doing some things, that's right. Last 11 games with the Pirates, he's batting 421 with all three of his home runs this season, 15 RBI and OPS over 1,100. Chris, any deep league interest in Caratini or Tommy fan? Karatini's been doing it long enough that I think if you need a second catcher, just go ahead and add him. He's playing a lot because the Yorna Alvarez injury is giving Yiner Diaz more opportunities at D.H. Christian Averez is away from the team from a couple days, so he'll play a lot this week. I don't expect Victor Keratini to be a must-start fantasy option moving forward, but I think he's fine as a second catcher if you need one right now, and I have very little interest in Tommy Fam.

You know what? It's just one of the most annoying things in fantasy, Chris, is I drop Tommy Fam in an NL only league right before this stretch started. And it's just so annoying, man. It is so annoying. You hold this guy all year in an NL only league. You drop him finally, and then he goes off at an O'R. It's just there were no signs that this was going to happen. Oh, God, it's just so frustrating.

Anywho, let's take our final break. When we return, I've got pitcher questions for Chris. We'll talk about it right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. I've got six pitching questions. there was seven, but you know, Zach Allen we already talked about. So it's down to six, and let's start with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who could not escape the first inning at the Brewers.

He recorded just two outs. He was charged with three earned runs, but five runs total. Two walks to zero strikeouts here. He threw more fastballs and sliders in this one. The splitter had nothing, which is supposed to be his best pitch. Didn't have the curve working either. That's supposed to be his second best pitch. So last two starts before this were good.

There have been some hiccups along the way. He's allowed four plus runs in three of his last seven starts. The overall numbers are still great here, Chris. But is there anything that stands out to you underneath that worries you about Yamamoto? I mean, could it be fatigue? We know he didn't throw many innings last year. Maybe these are just the ebbs and flows of a pitcher who relies on a splitter as much as he does. What do you think?

Yeah, I think the likelyest actually. explanation is just that splitters and splitters especially are a real feel pitch and we've seen that with with other pitchers who rely on their splitter a lot it comes and goes and sometimes guys look unhittable I think you look at Kevin Gosman as a guy who even now there are times still where he looks like his old self and then there are times when he just gets bombed and I think that's because the splitter's just a volatile pitch and then you add on top of that for Yamamoto the fact that his second best pitch and his second best putaway pitch in particular is that big slow curveball. That's going to, like it's a 77 mile an hour curveball.

That's going to be a tough pitch to consistently command. And some days he's not going to have it. And I think that's the likeliest explanation. And the thing with Yamamoto is when you look into the arsenal, it's not a great foresear. You know, it's not a great cutter or slider. So the margin for error here, if he doesn't have his two really good pitches, is pretty iffy. But you still look at the overall numbers. And it's what, a 277 ERA?

Well, it's a 282 XERA. It's a 28% strikeout rate that's been consistent from last year to this year. I think that's just who he is. So I don't have much concern at all about Yoshinova Yamamoto. What about on the other side, Freddie Peralta was great up against the Dodgers, six shutout innings with seven strikeouts to just one walk. Only had nine whiffs on 98 pitches here, but he only allowed one hard hit.

And pretty much had everything working here for Freddie Peralta. He has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 18 of 19 starts. The control has been much better lately. The question here, Chris, 274 ERA comes with a 369 fifth. a 394 X-FIP. His BABIP is low, his left-on-base percentage is high. I think you can make the case that Freddie Peralta is a sell-high candidate, but he's also healthy, and he's a pretty reliable, like, SP2, SP3.

So unless you just have this wealth of pitching, I don't know that you can afford to trade Freddie Peralta right now. And the 244, Babbap, 249 after this start, that's low, even for him. But you look at his track record and it's a 267 career BABIP. And it was 278 last year and 273 the year before. And those are the two highest he's had outside of the 2020 season. And that's just who he is. He's just always like FIP and XFIP in particular are built around the premise that more or less all pitchers have the same skill at generating

outs on balls and play because that was the assumptions that we had made for a long time because we didn't have the data to do more than that. But it's always been clear that some guys do have the ability to limit hard contact more than others. And Peralta is one of those guys. So, you know, we have a long enough track record there. He's got, I was looking at up today for a piece that I'm going to be writing. He has four pitches with a whiff rate above the average for that pitch. So, you know, it's a deep, good arsenal. His slider has a 60% whiff rate, which is remarkable. I know he's changed that pitch up and he's throwing it a lot less. But yeah, he's got a lot of ways to get hitters out. I do think he's not a sub three ERA pitcher. I think

that's a fair expectation. You know, it's probably more like 350. That's still a really good pitcher and like you said he is currently healthy you can't say that about every starting pitcher and at some point you know okay he's outperforming his ERA by half a run yeah okay maybe there's a little room to sell high but I don't think Freddie Peralta stands out as a sell high candidate either all right let's move on to Christopher Sanchez who had another great outing this time at the giant seven innings one run eight strikeouts to just one walk he had 17 whiffs on 105 pitches. That change up just tremendous.

15 of his 17 whiffs here, and he now has seven straight quality starts. He has gone seven plus innings in five of those. He also has just one total walk over his last five starts. So Christopher Sanchez just looks awesome right now. He's down to a 259 ERA, 113 whip. The strikeouts are up this season. And you know, Chris, maybe he's just,

just a top 12 starting pitcher. I was looking at my rankings. I have him at SP19. I think I have Joe Ryan at SP12. I have Carlos Hordaun at 13 and Dylan Seas who struggled this year. Why not? All the underlying numbers agree that Christopher Sanchez should be like a sub three ERA guy with over a strike up or inning.

I don't know. Maybe he's just a top 12 starting pitcher. So the two things I would say that will, that are currently holding him. him back from being a top 12 starting pitcher because he's not one this season, um, despite having an excellent season. He, he, right now he's 20th.

That was before this start. I would assume he'd move up a few spots. But one, it's a high, ish-wip, 113. That's good. But you look at the guys ahead of him and like,

Yamamoto was 1.01 before this start and Brian Wu's 0.96. And Robbie Ray is 1.09. And Rodon is 1.03. And then strikeouts. He's just, he's a good strikeout pitcher approaching 10 per 9. But when you compare him to, I mean, even, you know, obviously we don't have to get into skeins and crochet and Terrick Scoobble on those guys. But like, he's behind Max Fried because the volume's not quite as good. And he's behind Robbie Ray and Joe Ryan who have similar ERA.

So I just, I think Christopher Sanchez is awesome. I don't want it to be, you don't think he's a top 12 pitcher, so you think he's bad, because that's not what it is. Why do you hate him, Chris? Like, he's behind Freddie Peralta, even, for the season. So I don't think you should necessarily just take what a pitcher has done and say that's who they are, but when you are dealing with that level of pitcher, you got to split hairs.

And I think you can split enough hairs to push Christopher Sanchez out of the top. top 12. I hear you on everything that you pointed out and the whip in particular, but while you were breaking all that down, all that was going through my head was Framber Valdez. Framber Valdez. The difference is Framber Valdez has done this for a lot longer than Christopher Sanchez. He's just more reliable, but, you know, for a long time, we kind of have made the comp like, yeah, Christopher Sanchez, poor man's Framber Valdez. It makes sense, right? They get a lot of ground balls, but he might just be Frambervaldus. Yeah, like Sanchez has taken that step this year to get more strikeout. So I kind of feel like if we have Valdez

as a top 12 starter, that Sanchez is just kind of in that mix. That's reasonable. I think he's in the discussion where, you know, we always have the like, it's a big sports. Does anyone say in the discussion outside of this context of like sports? Like, ah, this guy's in the MVP discussion. I think Christopher Sanchez is in the top 12 discussion. But there are probably I don't know, 20, 25 pitchers who are in the top 12 discussion. And I don't think it's enough to make him a top 12 pitcher. But who cares, right? Like, that doesn't really, we'll have that discussion next February.

And we'll have to actually make that decision. Who would you rather have, Framber Valdez or Christopher Sanchez? Who would you rather have Christopher Sanchez or Joe Ryan? but right now you've got Christopher Sanchez on your team and that's awesome for you and it sucks for everyone else. I think that's the best way to think about it. Let's take a look at Jose Barrios who turned in a quality start at the White Sox.

Six innings, one run, four strikeouts, only had five whiffs on 76 pitches. Something to watch here. The velocity's down quite a bit for Burrios. The sinker was down 2.1 miles per hour. The fastball down 1.5. A couple other pitches were down around 1.5 miles. per hour as well. He does have a quality start in eight of his last 10 outings, the two that

weren't, six earned runs in each. So if this were any other pitcher, Chris, I would play the sound drop. Can't keep getting away with this, but this is Jose Burrios and this is what he does. The one thing, again, it's just how worried are you about the velocity? Because, you know, 1.5 to 2 miles per hour and everything, that kind of stands out to me. I agree it stands out. I agree in theory it's worrisome. I don't. I don't. think there's anything actionable about it. Like, if there is someone in your league who is pounding the table, I need Jose Barrios on my team right now, and I will trade, you know, okay, sure.

If you can get something good for him, do it. But I would have said that if his velocity was up three miles per hour. Oh, probably not. If his velocity was up three miles per hour, I'd probably be pretty interested. Outside of Blue Jay's fans, you're probably not going to get that for Jose. I just, like, we know what Jose Barrios is, and it's a, like, 350 to 360 ERA almost every year. He's good.

It's just, he's not anything much more than good. Tanner Bybee, is he good? I don't know, man. Just another clunker this time at the Astros. He was cruising up until the fifth inning, and then it just all fell apart. He allowed two homers in that inning. The final line, four and two thirds, four runs loud,

three strikeouts to one walk. He had 10 whiffs on 86 pitches. And, you know, he's now allowed, four plus earned runs in three of his last four starts. It's a 435 ERA. It's a 123 whip. Chris, is Tanner Bybee still a must start pitcher? No.

No, he's not. He's been searching for it all season, and it had seemed like maybe he had figured something out in a couple starts ago. He was starting to throw the sweeper as his primary pitch in June. He was getting a lot more whiffs. That's been a really good. good pitch. And that's been the biggest problem for Tanner Bybee is the strikeouts just have not been

there this season. But he was starting to tap into that more in June. And then the last couple of starts have just been really mediocre for him. So I'm not saying you should drop Tanner Bybee, but I don't think he's someone that is just a rotation mainstay for you. I think you you pick and choose your spots with him. And maybe he figures it out. We've certainly seen that from him in the past. But there is a part of me that wonders whether he's worth the trouble at this point. Because the strikeout upside has just not consistently been there this season. And yeah, I don't know. I'm not viewing Tanner Bybee as a must-start pitcher.

I'm, is he in my top? Okay, he is in my top 40 in my last update, but I think that's going to go down. Yeah. I think he probably should be closer. to 50 at this point, which would put him on the fringe of he's not someone that's just I'll set it and forget it in your lineup every single week type pitcher. You brought up the strikeouts being down this year for Tanner Bybee and he's throwing his sinker more this season. So that kind of feels like it would correlate with strikeouts going down. And he used that sinker

33% in this start. So it has been a good pitch for him in terms of just getting outs and limiting hard contact. But obviously you're not getting a lot of whiff. on a sinker. So that kind of seems like maybe it has contributed to the issues here with Tanner Bybee. Last name up is Shane Boz, who turned in a quality start at the

Tiger. Six innings, three runs allowed, seven strikeouts, had 16 whiffs on 94 pitches. Just remains confounding. That's the word for me here with Shane Boz. It's just, he has introduced this cutter recently, and he's throwing it a lot.

He used it 30% in this. But it wasn't good. Now, is it enough for him to just throw that pitch and it helps everything else play up? I guess that's a possibility because the fastball and the curveball looked awesome in this start. So maybe that's just it. He needed another look,

something to just kind of throw hitters off balance a little bit here. But since introducing that cutter on June 15th, it's five starts for Baz with a three ERA on the nose, a 109 whip, and over a strikeout per inning. So all in all, I think the cutter has been, good here for Shane Boz. What do you think the rest of season, Chris? Where would you have Shane Boz in your SP ranks for the rest of season?

That's a rude question to ask. Would you rather have him or Tanner Bybee? I think it's got to be Boz. At least we've seen some upside from Shane Boz this season. It's been fleeting and has been off and on, but the cutter does seem to have changed a lot for him. Now, one thing that's worth noting is, the first let me make sure i got the number right so we're five starts into the tanner bivie or the

Shane boss cutter experience and the first three starts the whiff rate was awesome it was 36% in the month of june the last two starts he has gotten one with with the cutter combined over these past two starts and that is on 44 pitches. So, you know, that does suggest that there was an element of surprise when he introduced the pitch and that's gone away. But the four seamers still worked really well. It still can be a really good pitch. And yeah, maybe it's just helping the whole arsenal play up. You know, the term you hear a lot in pitch development discussions around Cutters is it's a bridge pitch. You know, guys have a fastball on a slider

or a fastball and a curveball in Boz's case, but it's a hard curve, and they need something to bridge the two of them together. And even if the cutter itself is not great, maybe it helps the, you know, ties the room together. And that might be what we're seeing with Shane Boz here. All right, let's wrap up with a few other things here. And I got an email asking if Bryce Harper is washed.

So, look, Bryce Harper missed almost all of June with a right wrist injury. He's 32 years old. So it's not impossible that he's slowing down at this point. But obviously, you know, dealing with a wrist injury, it's probably going to take some time to get back on track, get your timing back, all that thing, and, you know, maybe even still playing through something. But overall, it's a 253 batting average,

nine homers, eight steals, 792 OPS for Harper, which, you know, is not. not what you expected, obviously. You're probably expecting closer to like a 900 OPS bat from Bryce Harper. Still hitting the ball hard. The barrel rate's been down two seasons in a row. You know, some scary stuff in the underlying plate discipline metrics here, Chris. What do you think?

Is Bryce Harper washed? So he was like a borderline first round pick coming into the season. And now he'd be more like a third rounder for me. so if that's how you're defining it like he's no longer an elite player then i think that's reasonable um he's 32 years old even hall of famers and yes Bryce harper is going to be a hall of famer i do not at me that is not controversial even those guys age they just tend to age better than everyone else and and that's what you're seeing like he's not the player he once was the quality of contact's a little worse the plate discipline's a little worse especially when you look under the hood

but a little worse for Bryce Harper still a really good player. 3676 X Wobah is still really good. 423X Wobon contact, still really good. Not as good as it once was, but I do not think we are seeing the end of Bryce Harper as a productive baseball player. It's just maybe it's more like an 840, 850 OPS than the 900 OPS. That might be the case.

We've talked about this all season long, and again, maybe there needs to be some kind of recalibration amongst stack cast expected stats. But last year, Bryce Harper overperformed his expected stats. This year, the expected stats are a little bit better than where they were last year, but he's vastly underperforming them. So do with that information what you will. I am still willing to say that I think as Bryce Harper gets further removed from this wrist injury, he'll have a better second half. I could see him. You know, like you said, he's probably a, I would say over 850. If you gave me over under 850 OPS for the rest of the season, I would take the over on that.

So I guess I, you know, based on what he's done so far, I still think he's a buy right now. I think that's fine, yeah. If you can obviously, you know, get him for a discount based on where he was drafted earlier this season. Did you realize hitters heating up addition? Sorry, that's. Yeah, I got to get the sound. You got to get the drop. I got to get the sound drop for you.

The people want to hear. a 25-year-old Flaming Lips song on their fantasy baseball podcast. Well, you know what? With all the, I don't know, questionable things that I throw out there, I guess that would fit right in. So why not? Roman Anthony might be happening. Three for five with his second home run, this one off of a lefty. And over his last nine games, he's hitting 390 with one homer, four doubles,

strikeout rate down to 23% during that time, hitting the ball extremely hard, still way too many ground balls. but we're starting to see it here from Roman Anthony. Bobby Wood Jr. last 21 games, he's hitting 360 with five homers, 21 runs, 15 RBI, three steals, and OPS around 1,000. If there were ever any questions about Bobby Wood Jr., he's fine. Salvador Perez slowly picking the numbers back up, two-for-four with his 11th home run, and over his last 40 games, hitting 260 with nine homers,

31 RBI, and OPS over 800, which is pretty much the player you were expecting from Salvador Perez. Esoc Paredes, picking things back up himself, hit his 19th home run over his last 10. He's hitting 318 with three home runs. And Corey Seeger, a name I just will not shut up about. Last 15 games, 286, 6 homers, 14 runs, 13 RBI, a 1084 OPS. Five names here, Chris, hitters heating up.

Anything that stands out? Anything you'd like to add? No, I think the key thing for me with Salvador Perez is as frustrating as the experience of having him on your roster has been, he's still on a 90 RBI pace. How many catchers have more RBI than him? Cow Rally, okay, that's one. I'm not sure there's another catcher with more RBI. I think Austin Wells, oddly enough, has a lot of RBI this season. but I think Salvador Perez probably has more than him.

Hunter Goodman and Salvador Perez were tied for second with 50. There you go. At the start of today. So yeah, that's patience. It was possible that Salvador Perez had just lost it. But you need even two months. It's just not enough time to drastically change your opinion on really well-established players, most of whom are on this list, Roman Anthony being the major exception, but that's also

one where you need to give a guy like Roman Anthony some time. We've talked about basically every hitting prospect the last two or three years. It seems like the first month is a wash. And maybe the second month, too. Eventually they start to figure out. Now, it's hard to know that. It's hard to say that in the moment because you're taking losses and that's tough. It's also hard to know that, hey, this guy who's been terrible for two months, who has never been good at the major league level before, is definitely going to be good. You can't say that. But you've got to have faith in the talent. You got to have faith in the ability to identify really good players. So it just speaks to the kind of patience you have to have with young guys. A couple of leftovers

here on the hitting side, Vinnie Pee. Baby. Vinnie Pass Quantino. The power stroke is coming alive here. he has three home runs in his last four games. All of those are against left-handed pitching. Agostin Ramirez, such a sweet swing. Home runs are great to watch, no matter who hits them. It'll look a little bit better off of Augustine Ramirez's Batman. Two for four with his 14th home run. He's done that in 65 games.

So, look, if we're thinking about the future a little bit, if Agostean Ramirez is, I don't know, 130, 140 game player next season, I think he has 30 home run upside. He's got to avoid, you know, a sophomore slump and all those types of things, but the power potential is apparent here with Augustine Ramirez. And shout out to Manny Machado,

three for five with his 15th home run and picked up his 2000th career hit. Yeah, that's another guy who's going into the Hall of Fame. That also might make some people mad, but that's happening. I think I saw a graphic during the game players with 350 home runs and 2,000 hits before they turned 33, and it was all just bona fide Hall of Fame players.

Oh, yeah, no. I mean, that's, this is, he technically did turn 33 two days ago, but that's beside the point. This is age 32 season. When you, that's why just being a major leaguer at 19, like Manny Machado was, let alone being a decent major league hitter at 19. it's basically like a 70% chance that you're going to make the Hall of Fame. Just if all you know about is that,

you've got a good bet that that guy's going to make the Hall of Fame. That's, yeah. Yeah, it has played out that way thus far. Some pitching leftovers. Jacob de Grom was meh at the Angels, five innings, three runs with five strikeouts here. It was the first time allowing more than two. earned runs since April 11th for Jacob de Grom.

So just speaks volumes to how good he's been. And you say Kikuchi, not great on the other side. Five innings, four runs allowed with four strikeouts. Did have 16 whiffs on 97 pitches. Seven of those on the slider, five on the fastball. It's interesting, Chris, that we had this stretch in June where Kukuchi threw his curveball more and everything kind of lined up. All right, he was getting good results.

The pitch mix is different. All right. we could buy into that. And over his last couple starts here in July, he is not throwing the curveball as much anymore. So I don't really know why that's happening, but his fastball and slider have got hit very hard this season. I don't know why he's making this decision.

The Ysay Kikuchi story. That's how I feel about that. It just he's a, he's a, he's an inveterate tinkerer. And he usually tinkers his way. into figuring it out, but sometimes like we're seeing, he tinkers his way back out of being good. And there's a reason he's been a very, very frustrating fantasy option for years. So I just as I was talking after that, that stretch about how I needed to move him up and I had buried him too far and I think I did end up moving him into like the top 45.

Of course, then he lets us down. That's the Yusay Kikuchi experience right there. It's crazy that he has a 302 ERA and a 138 whip. It's right. One of these things is not like the other. So look, it's still lots of strikeouts, but just a very interesting player is what I will call Usaic Kikuchi. A couple bullpen updates here for the Marlins. Anthony Bender entered with two outs in the ninth inning, two runners on, a four-run lead.

He struck out Austin Hayes to pick up his second save. of the season. And there you go, Chris. Is Ronnie Enriquez actually the closer for the Marlins? This wasn't a traditional save opportunity, but...

Yeah, and he might have... He'd worked three of the... No, I don't think this was working. He last pitched on Saturday, so... I don't know. The one thing I did notice about Ronnie Enriquez, I was doing that research earlier today

that I mentioned when I was telling by Freddie Peralta, Ronnie Enriquez has four pitches with an above average whiff rate. I did not realize that about him, but that's, I think he's the best pitcher in the Marlins' bullpen. I don't think this changes that he is likely the Marlins closer, although maybe not the actual, for sure, Marlins closer. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Claucet pitched a clean ninth inning for his 19th save. And for the Giants, Camilla Doval got the ninth with a two-run lead.

He walked one but picked up his 14th save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Brian Beow up against the Rockies, Nick Martinez against the Marlins, Andre Palante gets the Nationals, and Jeffrey Springs home against the Atlanta Braves. Yeah, I think Beio and Martinez are the two best, and Palante's fine for a third. Yep, agreed. And then on Wednesday we have Eric Lauer at the White Sox.

Adrian Houser is on the other side against the Blue Jays, Bailey Falter at the Royals, Kate Horton at the Twins, Slade Sacconi at the Astros Brandon Walter versus the Guardians and Kumar Rocker at the Angels I think there's some interesting options here I think Lauer and Houser on both sides of that matchup have both been doing some really good stuff

and Brandon Walter there aren't a lot of pitchers I wouldn't stream against the Guardians right now and Brandon Walter fits in with the guys I would and I think Kumar Rocker is doing enough interesting since introducing that cutter of his that I think he's an okay streamer against the Angels too.

Yeah, I like Lauer. How's there I'm a little bit weary of just because the Blue Jays don't strike out very much. They're hitting the ball well right now, but he has performed well. So I would go Lauer. I agree with Walter and Rocker. Kind of intrigued by Kate Horton,

who's coming off his best start of the season. At the Twins, they're not hitting the ball well right now. He's a decent matchup, yeah. Yeah, he's behind the other names, but I think he's another name that you can look at here. Let's wrap up with some team name Tuesday, Chris. Are you ready? Yes, just keep talking.

I have to open the door to let the cats in because she's going to break down the door if I don't. All right, I could just filibuster in the meantime while you do that, because I don't want you to miss out on any of these names. Obviously, you want to get your reaction. And Chris is back, so here we go. This one is from Casey.

Acuna Machado means no worries. Yeah. So, like, yeah, I just got to piece it together there. But yes, that is good. From Brendan, Joe Boyle Rules. Yeah, that's, that's one of the Adam Sandler movies, right? That is Billy Madison. Billy Madison, yeah.

No, Billy Madison, yeah. Yeah, I look like such a bad Adam Sandler fan right now, but yeah, I think it's Billy Madison. Yeah, that should be you. That's your wheelhouse. Yes. Kurtso Wood. Come on, baby, make it Kurtso Wood. Agustine, Everything After.

Yep, yep. That's a... What is that from? That's a Counting Crows album, I believe. Oh, all right. Force of Abbott. I guess it's Force of Habit. Yeah, force of habit, yeah.

And Bayozo dubbed over. That's a good one. What is that from? I don't know. That's an I think you should leave Skit. There you go. So please don't watch it if you're not already a fan, because I can't ever recommend

I think you should leave. As much as I love it, it's just you either get it or you don't, and if you don't, you're going to think it's the dumbest thing in the world. I did try to watch it because I remember you and the Welsh would just, oh wait, whenever we were off air, you guys would just rave about it,

and I watched it, and I just, I couldn't get into it. I usually love, like, stupid comedy. I usually watch I like stupid comedy, but I was just, I don't know, I couldn't do it, man. The movie he did with Paul Rudd, I enjoyed it, It is one of the most uncomfortable experiences I've ever had in a movie theater.

I watched the entire movie with my hands covering my eyes. Oh, gosh. These are from Lewis, the Steer Master. Yep. Steer Way to Heaven. Yep. Do not understeer the Spencer. Yep.

And band team names from Matteo. Boe Ivor. Yep. Dinosaur Tatis Jr. That's good. The Flaming Lipscoms. There you go. Weemser.

Yep. And Minterpole. Yeah. And we got a bunch from a listener named Rob. Three sheets to the win. Yep. In glorious Bassets. Yep.

Dobbins the House Elf. Yep. Dr. Dre, the Kranick. Sure. Highway to Hellsley. Yeah. Yell it's submarine. Yep.

Boobich Prize. I don't get that one. I don't know either. All right. Blue Baez. Sure. Don't rain on my paredes. Yep.

Ober and Out or Ober and Trout. Yeah. Frosty the Stroman. Yeah, I think that's an old one, but a good one. Free to Lay. Yep. The Chisone Trail. Like the...

Am I missing something? Is it the Oregon Trail? No, I looked it up. I think this was a thing. Okay. Let's see. Yeah. A stock trail and wagon route

using post-Civil War era. Okay, sure. Wikipedia, so there you go. Great, great team name. Vivas, Las Vegas. Sure. Friar Tucker. Yep.

Tucker and Roll. Yeah. All right. There you go. We're going to wrap there for 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-bye. Mount Podcasts.