Fantasy Baseball Today - Nolan Jones Promoted, Waiver Wire Moves & Buy or Sell (7/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Hey there, Nolan Jones was promoted this weekend (2:55)! Reid Detmers made some changes and pitched very well. ... Should you add Matt Carpenter (12:30)? ... Let's rank the waiver wire pitchers from the weekend (15:00). ... Is it time to drop MacKenzie Gore and Jameson Taillon (21:15)? ... What do we make of waiver wire hitters like Josh Rojas and Carlos Santana (25:20)? ... News and notes (32:06): Yordan Alvarez landed on the IL. ... Buy or sell the recent performance of Luis Castillo and Blake Snell (44:40)? ... Sell-high on Carlos Rodon (50:50)? ... We wrap with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (59:30). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. All right, very eventful weekend in baseball. Let's break it all down. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, July 11th.

Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. today on the show. Nolan Jones got the call. A bunch of waiver wire options. Buy yourselves. Starters sit. We'll get into all of it. But first, Chris, I am so jealous

that you got to see the one and only. Sandy in person Sunday. How was it? Yeah, went to the Marlins Mets game. Marlins got the series split, which is, you know, that's the under 500 teams version of a moral victory.

And Sandy was, you know, he wasn't even like a show. sharp as normal today, but he still managed to go through seven innings and 93 pitches, lower to ZRA to 173. Like, this run he's on is just fantastic. I was thinking, like, in the pantheon of Marlins pitchers, we're coming up on like 96 Kevin Brown and Jose Fernandez, his one full season, I think, 2016, and maybe like one Josh Johnson stretch. Like that's where Sandy Alcantra is right now. It's been really, really fun to watch. And I think I have him as a top five, if not.

Either five or six pitcher in both formats now. So this is for Sandy Alcantra, 12 straight starts with seven plus innings. He has a 12-3 ERA and a .73 whip in that 12-start stretch. Like I know there are other pitchers having good seasons. and like Tony Gonsolin is the hometown guy and Clayton Kirshall is having a really good season and like that would be fun for the Dodgers hosting the All-Star game but like

there's no question Sandy Alcantra has been the best pitcher in the National League this season. He's thrown like 20 more innings than anyone else. It's wild. Yeah, yep. He leads baseball with 130.1 innings pitched the next closest Aeronola. 111 and a third innings pitched

and top 10 in strikeouts this season for Sandy Alcantara as well. Happy you were able to see it, Chris. By the way, Josh Johnson, low-key, I always love that guy. I felt that he was going to be amazing, and I got suckered in. Any time he did anything, I got suckered in. Just shouts to the dude at the Mets Marlins game today, rocking a Josh Johnson jersey. Oof.

That is the real hero. That is awesome. All right, let's get into the rest of the weekend's action. Oh, my goodness gracious. Oh, my goodness gracious. There was a prospect promotion this weekend, Scotty, and he did something pretty awesome in his first game. What did he do?

Well, it was more in his second game. The prospect is Nolan Jones and the awesome feat was he hit a 457 foot home run into the fountains at Kaufman Stadium. And it was kind of disarming how far it went

because off the bat, I was like, oh, you know, it didn't look like it was going to be this monster home run. It was, I guess it was just hit, on, you know, just at the right launch angle to make it deceptive looking off the bat. But it went a long way. It was an oppressive poke there for Nolan Jones. And he had an impressive weekend overall.

Went five for 10, walked three times, started all three games. I think there would be a lot more excitement for him in fantasy if this was happening in July of 2021. he had been kind of a consensus top 100 prospect three years in a row prior to this year, kind of fell off the map because he had a bad year that ended in ankle surgery last year. It was his first shot at AAA. And I got a sense from a lot of the prospect write-ups for Nolan Jones, even entering into last year that people were kind of losing faith in him. His strikeout rate remained high in a way, you know,

he walks a lot and I think people were expecting the strikeouts to improve the power you know he has a good raw power profile but puts the ball on the ground a lot and continued to even into the upper miners so I think there's still a lot of skepticism for Nolan Jones we have yet to see if he's going to keep playing against left-handed pitchers he's a left-handed batter so so I think that that's a real question but I think the most attractive thing about him is even though he's playing outfield now he's remains eligible at third base in CBS sports leagues anyway. And that's a miserable position. That's a position where a lot of people need help. So I would say anywhere you need help at that position, it's worth taking a flyer on Nolan Jones. I didn't put in a bid for him. I don't think in any of my 12 team leagues.

I did in a few of the 15 teamers. None of them I really needed a third baseman. So my bids were modest. But, you know, if I needed a third, if I did need a third basement, that might have changed the equation a bit. And especially if you need a third baseman this upcoming week, because the Guardians have eight games, and I know that they're top five in terms of hitter matchups for you, Scott.

So 17% rostered is Nolan Jones. He's widely available. We'll gain outfield eligibility as well. Do you think he is a must add, Scott, or just, you know, if you need the help for now, if you need a corner or something like that? Or you're just looking to take that shot no matter what? I wouldn't say no matter what, no. I, like I said, there were some,

I don't think I put it a bit from in any of my 12-team leagues. Now, I don't know that there was anybody I was dying to drop in any of those leagues. It might have been different if there was. You know, it's never a bad idea to take a chance on upside. But I have some real doubts about Jones and his ability to be a useful everyday player in the majors. But there is talent there. If you want to take a shot on it, go ahead. All right, fair enough.

You mentioned he was added in a bunch of leagues already for Fab. He went for an average of seven percentage of remaining Fab budget in the leagues that I play in. Chris, does that sound right if you want to take a shot on Nolan Jones, maybe five to seven percent, something like that? Or is that too high? Yeah, that seems reasonable to me. You know, I think your best case scenario is probably like maybe this is a little too optimistic, but like Max Muncie. like that's the kind of profile I think you know very patient hitter Nolan Jones swung I just read Nolan Jones swung it fewer than 40% of all

pitches he saw last year in AAA this year so far I mean it's limited sample size but it's been like 35% so yeah I think there's a chance that he's a you know a solid source of power who you know probably hurts you in batting average so you know a poor man's max Munty maybe all right let's stick with you here Chris oh my goodness as gracious standout from the weekend for you. Reed Dettmers, who got sent down to the miners on June 21st, made one start in the miners and was so good that they called him back up. He had 14 strikeouts in that minor league start, and it wasn't quite that good Friday

against the Orioles, but still a pretty impressive start for a guy who hasn't shown all that much outside of the no-hitter. That's a pretty good one, I guess, but seven strikeouts over six shutout innings, two hits, one walk for Reed Dettmers in this one. The headline coming out of the start is that he threw his slider as his most used pitched 40% of the time, and it was a harder slider than he had thrown before. His average velocity with it was up to 86.4 miles per hour. That was three miles per hour up from where his slider's been this season. And I think it's interesting.

You know, I don't know if it's enough to make Reid Detmer's a superstar, but the scouting report on him coming up as a prospect was, you know, he was a college guy who got. drafted and moved very quickly through the miners and it was always like pitchability. The curveball is this really good pitch for him but wasn't necessarily clear if the rest of the Arsenal was going to get there and you know the slider four swings and misses on 36 pitches. That's not incredible but the the fact that it was more effective the fact that he was more effective overall and the fact that Redembers is a young pitcher with some pedigree makes it at least worth a look on waivers. I'm not going to say that you should go all out for him, but his fastball's been so bad in the majors that

anything that lessens the impact of that is going to be a good thing. All right. That is Reid Dettmer's widely available as well, 26% rostered, even if you add him this week, which I think speculatively makes sense. Prospect status there and obviously change in pitch mix. He's going up against the Dodgers this week. So I don't think you want to use him in that matchup, but just if you want to take a shot and see where it goes from here, I think it's a good idea, Scott? Yeah, I mean, he, he not only did he, you know, I just don't want to understate the amount of that increase on the slider. He had been throwing it like 15% of the time previously and basically felt like he didn't have it. He considered it as put away pitch and he just didn't have it

early in the year, managed to throw a no-hitter in spite of it. But if you're missing your best pitch, like you can understand, like this, this just kind of puts the, the rest of his season into, shed's a new light on it, I guess, because he went down and he said he found a mechanical issue that was keeping him from, keeping the slider from working for him. So,

hopefully this is a fix for Reed Detmer's, and I agree. I think anywhere you need a pitcher, you know, you wouldn't want to start him next week, as you said, but there's definite promise here for Reed Detmer's. Where does he rank among these waiver wire pitchers This was going to save this for a little bit later on.

But hey, we're talking about Detmer's. The other ones that stood out to me, Alex Wood had a fantastic start on Sunday, seven shutout innings, eight strikeouts up against the San Diego Padres. Aaron Savali had a great start, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts at the Royals. Johnny Quedo turns back the clocks against the Tigers.

Eight shutout endings there, five hits, zero walks, five strikeouts. Chris, do you think Detmer's ranks at the top of that group? Wood, Detmers, Savali, Quedo. Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I think him and Wood are probably pretty close, but with, you know, Wood being somewhat underwhelming this season, I think I think I would take Detmer's over him.

Yeah. Scott. I was going to say Wood's the only one I would take ahead of Detmer's. You know, obviously had a good start. This weekend himself, one of his best starts of the season, and he has, let me see, I just wrote it down. No, I was going to say that, Wood has a 320 X-FIP on the year,

which certainly paints a much rosier picture than the 443 ERA, but also the FIP and the XERA, basically all the ERA estimators suggest Wood has deserved much better than he's gotten. And hopefully this starts Sunday where he struck out eight and seven shutout innings. Needed only 83 pitches to do so, too. Hopefully that's Alex Wood getting back on track. All right. So, Scott, did you say definitively, would you take?

I would go Wood over Detmer's, but those two are in a different category from the other two. I really have no interest in Johnny Quedo or Aaron Savale. By the way, Johnny Quedo has an ex-fip over four. Yeah, sure does. Even though he has a 291 ERA. Yeah, it's kind of the opposite of Alex Wood right now. I will say if you play in a quality start league, Johnny Quedo has a quality start in eight of ten starts this season.

So if nothing else, he is giving you length and, you know, decent length at that. Oh my goodness gracious for me. Gotta stick with the homer, right? Matt Carpenter, seven hits this weekend, including two home runs, and he has started six straight games for the Yankees. They are finding ways to get his bat in the lineup.

He's playing a little bit of first base. They throw him in the outfield. He's playing D.H. Joey Gallo has really lost out on playing time, and I think rightfully so, based on what he's done this season. But I'm kind of interested in this. He's 11% rostered.

He's widely available. I added him in a few of my deeper leagues already. He's got second base eligibility for now. He's hitting the ball hard. He's putting the ball in the air. He's pulling the ball a ton, which all makes sense for Yankee Stadium as a left-handed batter. So I don't really want to overstate it

because like a week from now, he might not even be playing or anything with the Yankees. But I'm kind of interested in this. Scott, what do you think about Matt Carpenter? And are you looking to add him anywhere? Well, I hadn't noticed that he'd started playing again. And they had taken him out of the lineup after he had a good stretch filling in for Giancarlo Stanton early in the year. And I kind of thought that was that, you know.

But yeah, the numbers look fantastic. And he always seemed like a guy who the underlying numbers suggested his decline wasn't as steep as the overlaying numbers, I guess, made it appear. I do remember this offseason reading about how he spent a lot of time with Joey Vata this offseason to try and, I'm actually looking at that piece right now. Yeah, to try and recap, to try and tap into the same thing Joey Votto did to, you know, up his power late in his career. And maybe it's happening for Carpenter too. Maybe pulling the ball more as part of it. Chris, do you, are you looking to add Carpenter in anything shallower than like a 15 team league for now or just kind of take a wait and see approach?

Yeah, I would say probably 15 team or deeper is where I'm looking, you know, it's, I guess I could see a 12 team league where I could have a need, but for the most part, yeah, I'm still not quite convinced of the playing time. But it's, I'm happy to see it, you know, and then the skill set does look like there's elite. Like it's not, it doesn't seem like it's entirely smoking mirrors. I guess is the way I would want to say. Yeah. Again, hitting the ball hard, putting it in the air and pulling it. I mean, that is a recipe for success, especially in Yankee Stadium. So take a shot in deeper leagues.

and let's see if this continues to go for Matt Carpenter. We spoke about a few waiver wire pitchers. Let's get into a few others here. Waiver wire pitchers part two. Kegan Thompson had a strong start at the Dodgers this weekend, five and two thirds innings of one run ball, eight strikeouts in that start. A nice little pitcher's duel on Saturday

between Kyle Gibson and Dakota Hudson. Gibson went seven shutout with five strikeouts, and Dakota Hudson went six shutout on the other side with four strikeouts in that game. And then Jake Oterese, bold prediction by Chris to end Friday's podcast, was that Oteroese would have a great start on Sunday. That's exactly what he did. Seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts,

14 swinging strikes at the Oakland A's. Obviously a great matchup, but he's also facing the Oakland A's again this week. Chris, do you have any interest in Oterizzi? Kyle Gibson, Dakota Hudson, Keegan Thompson. Yeah, I think Oterese is a fine streamer. I don't know who he's facing after Oakland. or I guess that's probably his last start before the All-Star break. So I don't know who he's facing coming back out of the All-Star break.

But yeah, I think he's going to be useful against Oakland. Sure. I don't think he's going to be this good. But, you know, I think he's an average pitcher or so. And average pitchers can look really good against Oakland. So totally fine using him there. That being said, like, I think I'd probably, if I was looking longer term, I'd probably just rather have Keegan Thompson,

who I don't think is. a superstar by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he's done some good things. He's doing a good job of controlling quality of contact, 70th percentile or thereabouts in most of the quality of contact metrics. Obviously, small sample size, caveats abound, but yeah, I think there's something somewhat interesting about Keegan Thompson and his, you know, kitchen sink approach to throwing pitches. Scott, you're looking at any of these names, Thompson? Kyle Gibson, Dakota Hudson, Oterizzi? I mean, Thompson is probably my favorite,

but that's not saying a lot. I think when he first started out is ground ball rate was a lot higher than it is now. It's, you know, he's not exactly profiling as a ground ball pitcher right now, in which case, you know, I'm just not sure he does anything well enough to be more than a streamable type in fantasy. I am

like kind of disappointed Jake Oter Rizzi was so good on Sunday because like the Astros aren't going to keep a six-man rotation rest of season and maybe it'll be a life-fines-away situation and somebody gets hurt that, you know, pitchers have been known to do that.

But I'd hate for anyone else to be bumped in favor of Oter Rizzi from that rotation, you know? Oh yeah. Scott just hates when I look good. That's all. No, no. He hates to see me shine.

Especially when it's advocating for Jake Oterizi. Only when it's Oterizzy, yes. Waver Wire Pitchers Part 3. If you didn't really like the previous group, I think you're probably going to hate this one. Dean Kramer has four scoreless outings in his last five starts. He went five shutout with seven strikeouts against the Angels. Madison Bumgarner had one of his best starts of the season,

seven innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts against the Rockies. Zach Rinkie now has three solid starts since returning from the I. He went five shutout with five strikeouts against the Guardians. And then Cole Irvin, low-key, he's having a good season. Nothing really lines up with the underlying numbers, but he was good again against the Houston Astros of all teams. Six innings, two runs, only two strikeouts, zero walks there for Cole Irvin. Scott, right back to you.

Cole Irvin, Granky, bumgarner, Dean Kramer. Anything with this group? Maybe more so in deeper leagues. How rostered is Irvin? I'm surprised he's as available as he is. Yeah, he's only 42% roster. Considering what the ERA and WIPP look like. I imagine the 3 and 6 record has something to do with that.

Yeah. Pitching for Oakland, not the best. I would say, you know, I don't see a lot to get excited about with Irvin either, but this is kind of, you know, for most of last year he was doing this too. So there, he did fade down the stretch last year. But there may be something there that just isn't jumping out to me that makes him serviceable. And so I would say both him and Granky I have more interest in than the previous group, which is more a reflection on the previous group than those two. But still, I mean, in Granky's case, I like that the velocity has been up by like a mile per hour and a half.

Someone gave me a hard time for saying that the other day because it's like up a mile per an hour and a half. or is it up 1.5 miles per hour? Up a mile per hour and a half would be like a strange measure of no one would ever use. Yeah, I think 1.5 miles per hour is how I would say it. Yes. Do you, Scott. Don't listen to the haters. Granky's throwing harder.

And three of his four starts since coming back from the IL have been his three best starts of the season, I would say. And he's at Granky. So, you know, I, you know, I don't, want to write him off too soon, especially if he's showing signs of doing better things. So I would say Granky's my, I'm not calling a must add or anything, but I would say of these last two groups of pitchers, he's the one I have the most hope for. And yeah, I looked into like Madison Bumgarner to see like maybe like the 365 ERA, you know,

maybe there's something I'm missing there. I haven't really paid any attention. No, there's not. He's bad now. The velocity is up for Bumgarner. That's the only thing I noticed. He still, his ex-ERA is like 4-88. His strikeout rates way down.

I don't see much reason to be optimistic about Madison, Baumgarner. When you see a 3.65 ERA accompanied by a 1.35 whip, you know one of those things is probably off. So probably going to be some regression coming for Madison Bumgarner. Not that you're necessarily going to drop these pitchers I'm going to mention for the ones that we just talked about, but maybe for Detmer's or Alex Wood. Chris, what do you think? Are we entering drop territory with any of these three pitchers? Mackenzie Gore got rocked again on Sunday.

He gave up eight runs over three and a third. Endings pitched. The ERA now up over four. Martine Perez, your favorite, another regression start over his last six starts. He's got a 4.91 ERA. And Jameson Tion has just come crashing back down to Earth. Last seven starts.

6.90 ERA. What do you think about dropping any of those names, Chris? Gore. I think. Martine Perez, Tion. I think it's totally fine to drop Jameson, especially. You know, not in every league,

certainly. You know, your 15 team leagues probably keep him, but like I think he's dropped one of 12th team league. I've never really had him and said him like my top 70, I don't think.

So pretty, pretty pessimistic about him. Perez, I mean, my guess is he won't be worth starting moving forward. So, like on the whole. So, I that's you know you can take that to mean he's dropable but I'm not telling you to gore I want to hang on to but man yeah it's rough his fastball velocity the first two months of

the season April and May was above 95 miles per hour on average in June it was 94.1 in July so far it's down to 93.5 so that's concerning it doesn't necessarily mean that it's an injury you know it could just be that his mechanics are a little out of whack and You know, that's something that you wouldn't be surprised to see from someone who, you know, has at least three walks in seven, six starts entering this most recent one. Only two strikeouts in the most recent one. So, yeah, I think. Gore spent all of last year trying to fix his mechanics, basically. And he's got like a very, you know, specific style of pitching that's very like Clayton Kershaw-esque in a lot of the ways that he pitches.

And, you know, Kershaw makes it work for him. but it's a, you know, when you actually watch Clayton Kirshall pitch, he's got a pretty unique delivery. He's got a pretty unique way of, you know, the drive through his leg kick is very unique. And Gore has struggled with that in the past and seems to be struggling with it right now. So I want to hang on to him, the upside's high,

but I can't fault you if you drop him. You know, I can't say I'm 100% confident. He's going to turn it around soon. Yeah, I'm kind of worried. Worried Gore is going to get sent down. I mean, I say worried, but that might be the best thing for him. The Padres are still rocking in a six-man rotation, and that's with Nick Martinez in the bullpen.

They could always move Nick Martinez back to the rotation if they wanted to stick with the six-man. So, you know, remember Gore only got in the rotation in the first place because of an injury, I think, to Clevenger or somebody else. And he did so well at first that he stuck around, but now he's not. Now he's doing, like, he's unstartable right now, and I think he's certainly in like a 12-team context.

I think you could talk about sitting Gore. The one I'd be most hesitant to drop of the three is Martin Perez, because let me see, even as of now, I mean, he's like top 20 in scoring in points leagues, even with this rough stretch he's on. He's outscored Zach Wheeler. He's outscored Robbie Ray, U. Darvish. And like I go to the teams where I have Martin Perez,

and he's the highest score on my team for the season and it's like, okay, I'm not going to drop him. I don't... missed your chance to sell him, though. Well, maybe so. If anybody was buying,

I think there's a good chance I'll end up dropping him at some point, certainly if he continues down this path. But I will point out that his ERA during this rough stretch is more like 450 than like $6.50. It's not what you've seen from Gore where he's just like sinking you every start.

It's just he hasn't been very good. So, you know, that gives me a little bit of hope too. All right. Let's move over to some waiver wire hitters from the weekend. John Birdie, I know we've talked about John Birdie a lot, but another interesting weekend where you had seven hits, two more steals, leads baseball and stolen bases, 68% rostered. Chris, I know we were talking beforehand and you're like,

oh, hey, John Burdy's on first base. I bet you he steals the base. And that's exactly what he does. if like there's a 90% chance this guy's going to try to steal second and he stole it on the next pitch. The only thing. The only thing is Chris, he's 68% rostered. I don't know if that number needs to be higher because I don't know that he is like a must roster player in a points league. No, probably not.

But I think he's viable. Like I don't think it's the worst thing in the world if you had to use him in a points league in a pinch. He's eligible at what, three or four different positions. So that's helpful. But no, I definitely don't think in a points league. he's a must roster player. I do think he's a must roster and must start player in basically any league where stolen bases matter though. Oh yeah for sure. He is a actually 75% rostered on Yahoo too. So I thought that was that makes sense. They have a much higher

proportion of their leagues that are roto or categories based than ours. Yeah, for sure. Scott, do you like any of these corner infielders who did something of note from the weekend? Alec Bohm had a double dong on Friday. He's 45% rostered. Josh Rojas just kind of fits this bill, You could play him anywhere, middle infield, outfield. He had seven hits this weekend, including a sock and a shoe on Friday, his fifth homer, his seventh steal, 49% rostered. Gavin Cheats has first an outfield eligibility, back-to-back games with a home run. He's been playing consistently for the White Sox.

He's 7% rostered, and Carlos Santana has three homers over the past two games. For the Mariners, including a double dong on Sunday. He is 9% rostered. What do you think of this group's got, Bohm, Rojas, Gavin Sheets, and Carlos Santana. Well, the most interesting, I think, is Rojas because he's so versatile and because he's contributing some speed in addition to everything else. Like, I don't think this is the start of a breakthrough or anything. I think he's a pretty middling hitter based on what we've seen from him so far in his career. But he's certainly hitting the ball hard right now during the stretch like 93 mile per hour, ever jaggs of velocity, I noticed.

and I just like having those versatile players around, especially the deeper the league you're in or the more restricted transactions are, obviously. It helps to have that guy you can slot in almost anywhere. Carlos Santana, I can see him becoming useful in Points League again. I mean, it's been going on like a month now where he's been hot. And, you know, more walks and strikeouts this year. The plate discipline that's been excellent,

throughout his career and made him a top 10 first basement in fantasy for, I would say a decade, but he actually started out a catcher. So he was like a top two catcher and then a top 10 first baseman forever, it seemed like in points leagues because of that great plate discipline. That's still intact. So, you know, 9% rostered. I don't think there's a lot of urgency to add Carlos Santana right now, but I'm keeping an eye on it. Yeah, I checked this since the start of June.

He's betting over 300, something like a 450 OBP. So just especially in deeper points leagues or any type of OBP format, I think Santana is going to help you quite a bit in those leagues. How about any of these deep league outfielders? Nixon Zell had two more multi-hit games this weekend. And over his last 17 games, he's betting 426 with two homers, three steals and an OPS over a thousand. Aaron Hicks went two for three with two steals on Friday.

He's been playing pretty consistently recently for the Yankees. And Harold Ramirez had six hits this weekend. He's now batting 324 overall. just not much else. Four homers, three steals on the season. He's 25% rostered. Chris, how would you rank these in deeper league? Sincel, Hicks, and Harold Ramirez.

You know, I might go Harold Ramirez, just because I think he's the best pure hitter of this bunch. I'm not sure what else he's going to do, but he does kind of remind me of Garrett Cooper in that like really solid, strong quality of contact metrics really doesn't strike out very much. He's 98th percentile, unexpected batting average.

He doesn't hit the ball in the air all that often. He doesn't run all that often. So there's limited utility, but I think he could be legitimately helpful in a batting average context. So yeah, I think, I think Harold Ramirez is pretty good. Scott,

can I get you to say anything good about Nixon Zell or over not Biden as yet? I was looking to see what the data looked like during this hot stretch. And it's, you know, average exit velocity is still. less than desirable. Yeah.

And no, I think I'm with Chris that Harold Ramirez is the one I'm most interested in, which isn't saying a ton. I mean, I don't like hollow batting average guys. But as Chris pointed out, 98th percentile expected batting average. It does seem like what he's doing with the batting average is legit. He's hitting 283 in his career, which I was kind of surprised to see. I did add Harold Ramirez to the 10 sleeper hitters for this week. I had to remove Josh Naylor because he's still dealing with that back issue that we talked about on Friday.

So Ramirez was the replacement. All right. Before we hit the break, reminder that you could join our fantasy baseball today Facebook group. That's Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. Fun community asking any type of questions that you have, waiver, wire, trade questions, dynasty keeper.

So hop in there, put up a post and go interact with other FBT listeners. and watchers. We're going to take a break, and we'll be back right after this. The news and notes, unfortunately, the biggest news of the weekend. Yerdan Alvarez went to the IL with right-hand inflammation,

and there's no timetable yet. Hopefully he can be back shortly after the All-Star break or maybe even right after the All-Star break, but if we get a timeline, we will obviously let you know. I think this goes without saying, if you need an outfield replacement, we've talked about Alex Kirloff a ton recently. I think he's up to 72% rostered,

So in shallower leagues, I think that makes sense. But Scott, some of the most added outfielers right now rostered in less than 60% of leagues. Eddie Rosario, Ramon Laureano, Garrett Cooper. Do you have one or two there that you like most? Yeah, Garrett Cooper is probably my favorite, and I have them in the sleeper hitters for this week. Eddie Rosario has been playing a lot,

but Adam Duval was banged up when Rosario first came back, and more recently, Duval's been away on paternity leave. So that's helped keep. Rosario on the lineup. I think playing time could be tricky between the two of them. And for that reason, I actually, I'm not sure the bid went through, but I was willing to drop Duval even in a 15-team league just because of that messy playing time situation. I would say if you don't need an outfielder specifically, somebody who's even more available than Kirillov, and we talked about him a lot, of course, but it's worth mentioning,

is Vinnie Pasquantino, who's my favorite sleeper hitter for this week and beyond. Yes, as we mentioned late last week, still hitting the ball extremely hard. So hopefully results coming this week. Scott, can we dub this week the Vinnie Pass Quantino breakout? Is that fine? Coming out party, Frank. That's what we call it. Let's do it.

Let's do it. Come in out party. Sweet. Jacob de Grub will make another rehab start either Wednesday or Thursday at AAA. He threw 36 pitches in his most recent rehab start. And sounds like he could be ready to go coming out of the All-Star break. So that would be awesome. get him and Scherzer in that rotation healthy together for the first time this season.

Fernando Tatis will talk with the doctor who performed surgery on him this week, and he could gain clearance to start taking batting practice without restrictions. Chris Sale will indeed return Tuesday and start against the race, which means he should have two starts, one against Tampa Bay and one against the Yankees. Chris, I assume that we're just throwing Chris Sale back in the lineup. Yeah, I mean, I think he threw like 72 pitches in his most recent start. I'm not sure if that was that was the one that he left because of control issues. So I don't know if like he could have thrown more and they just you know didn't want him to throw 40 pitches in an inning or whatever.

But yeah, I think he probably gets to 80 plus pitches and that could that should be enough for Chris Sale to get you, you know, six plus strikeouts. So yeah, I think you keep them out there. Sorry. I said I was thinking out loud there. I just checked and I did win Nolan Jones in one of my 15 teamers with only a $13. bid. So that's a 1.3% bid that I won him with. I dropped Ranger Suarez for him. How you like that?

It's one of those annoying leagues without IEL spots. It's just like, not everybody on the IL can take up a bench spot. I had to let Suarez go. George Kirby was optioned back to AAA on Saturday, but I believe the Mariners

are just trying to manage his workload much like the pirates did with Rwanzi Contreras. So I would expect Kirby to be back in the rotation after the All-Star break. We had a trade this weekend. Christian Betancourt was traded to the Tampa Bay raise for Cal Stevenson and Christian Fernandez. Betancourt is 15% rostered.

If you need a second catcher in a two-catcher league, he's been okay this year. 248 batting average, four homers, four seals. Has some impressive stack-ass stats. Yeah. Hits the ball hard. So you know what that means, Chris. Of course, Tampa Bay is going to turn him into a superstar and yada, yada, yeah. Just like the-catcher was so bad.

bad. Bethancourt was looking like a two-catcher league guy even with the A's. I'm kind of annoyed that now he's going to cut into Francisco-Mahia's time. Not that Mahia's been so great, but he's been a viable catcher in a two-catcher league. There was another trade, too, Frank. This wasn't the only trade. Oh, that's right. Your Atlanta Braves acquired Robinson Cunel, right? They did. Yeah. And they're going to put him on the Major League roster. He was playing in the minors for the Padres. Don't know what it means for Orlando RCF. Anybody was still holding out hope for him. But yeah, it was not even hitting in the miners?

He was doing okay. He hasn't done anything. Not what you'd want a major league caliber bat to do necessarily, but okay. Did you guys see when I think he was playing for the Chihuahuas in the minors? They had like a SpongeBob Squarepants jersey that he had to wear one night. It was completely ridiculous, but. Yeah, he's just, uh, it seems. beneath him.

He's been reduced to this and probably won't go on the Hall of Fame because he kept getting busted. Yeah, sad. PEDs with Canoe. One of my favorite Yankees growing up, so unfortunate. Anyway, Tyler Stevenson was reinstated from the IL on Saturday

and promptly picked up five hits including a homer over his last two games. Mitch Garver will undergo season-ending surgery to repair his injured flexor tendon on Monday. Joe Barlow has been removed from the Rangers close role and lefty Brett Martin picked up saves on both Friday and Saturday. He's 4% rostered. Chris, were you looking to maybe add Brett Martin in those

deeper category leagues if you need saves? Yeah, I mean, any league where you're chasing saves, I think it's worth looking at because we got the first two. Not only that, but I think when this was announced, Joe Barlow being removed. not performance reasons, by the way. Apparently, they just want to take some stress off him or whatever. I don't know. I don't know if he was like that Charlie Day meme in front of the collage where he's like, I don't know how stressed Joe Barlow was around the clubhouse

that they felt the need to do this. But it seemed like the leading candidate was Dennis Santana, who had been their eighth inning guy, a right-hander. But Santana set up for Martin both of these games over the week. And I know at least on Friday, Martin faced the heart of the lineup in the night. So it wasn't like a leverage situation. So I mean, I don't know that Martin's that good. He has a high ground ball rate.

ERA's fine. K's are low. I'm pretty sure he's not that good. Yeah. But he's getting saves. He seems like the clear frontrunner right now. If you're getting saves, you matter. Yes.

I think that's kind of where he falls in. Indeed. Andrew Heaney responded well to a bullpen session. and is nearing a rehab assignment. He's been on the IL with a shoulder injury. Josh Naylor returned from his back injury on Saturday, and then he was scratched again on Sunday, which Scott mentioned, so unfortunately,

you might not want to roll Josh Naylor out there this week. Brendan Donovan has missed two straight with an illness. Vidal Bruhan was optioned back to AAA. He was batting just 167 with the raise. Some prospect news. One of the top prospects in the game, Corbyn Carroll, was promoted to AAA. He was batting 313 with 16 homers and 12.

20 steals in 58 games at AA. Scott, do you think there's a chance we could see Corbyn Carroll in the majors this season? Well, they had said just a couple weeks ago that he was not going to skip AAA. So that gave me some doubt whether or not we'd see – I mean, there was always reason for doubt. He's young. He doesn't have a ton of minor league experience. But I was beginning to wonder if I should put him in my five on the verge and the prospects report. Now that he's at AAA, he officially hasn't skipped AAA.

So it could happen. I mean, I think if I was making, well, and I guess I will next week. I'll do a mid-season top prospects rankings. And I expect Corbyn Carroll will be number one. Obviously, that's not, you know, those are prospect rankings, so they're not thinking about 20-22 necessarily. But that's the caliber of prospect Corbyn Carroll is. And so it wouldn't surprise me if he's so good at AAA that the Diamondback's even

consider it, consider it even at age 21. Yeah, no, he's a freak athlete, power, speed, hit tool, lots of like with Corbyn Carroll. He's 26% rostered over on CBS. And we had another prospect report come out. And MRI on Grayson Rodriguez's lat came back clean. He was shut down in early June and probably won't pitch again this season. I mean, maybe later on, but I don't think it will be for the Orioles, even if he does return. These players went to the IL this weekend, Wander Franco, with a hamate injury in his

right wrist, which might require surgery. So it's a huge blow. He could be out, you know, the next four to six weeks, something like that. Jonathan Aranda was recalled by the Tampa Bay Rays and just a name to watch because he was having a pretty good season in the minors. James McCann with a left oblique strain, Jeffrey Springs with tightness in his lower right leg. That's retroactive to July 7th. Jerksson Pro Far went to the seven-day concussion IL, really scary collision on Thursday night for him. Ken Giles with right shoulder tightness and Michael Waka with right shoulder inflammation. It's worth mentioning that when McCann was placed on the IL,

the Mets did not call up Francisco Alvarez, who is their top prospect and is probably in the conversation for top prospect in baseball at this point, right, Scott? Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's a catcher. Really good catcher, hitter. We don't like catcher prospects and fantasy so much. But huge power, and he got called up to, AAA recently, but they opted to not call him up and reports say that he wasn't a real consideration.

But, I mean, we'll see what playing Thomas Nito does to their, or Tomas Nito does to their, you know, faith in Francisco Alvarez. He's 20 years old and has moved very quickly. So I would be surprised if we saw him this year. But the idea has occurred to me that. I mean, he's right around the corner. Right. Once you get to AAA, right? Yeah.

Fair enough. Literally right around the corner. He plays in Brooklyn. Yeah, true. No, he doesn't. Doesn't he? I went to a Brooklyn Cyclones game on Saturday. It's actually their high A affiliate, so I was sad because...

You know, I just said true because I took your word for it, so... I'm not any better off than that is saying away with it. I could have just let that, you know, sneak on by, but there was like... I missed out. Like last year, the Brooklyn Cyclones had Francisco Alvarez. They had Brett Beatty. like, you know, obviously like two pretty big prospects. Syracuse.

Yeah. Is the Mets AAA affiliate. I mean, that's, that's a hop, a skip, and a jump. Yeah. Not necessarily around the corner, but, you know, whatever. We can take a train there, something like that. As the crow flies. Start or sit these banged up players.

Rafi Devers missed the last two games with lower back pain. What do you guys think? Do you trust Devers for this week? I'd start them. Yeah. Me too. Whitmeryfield left Sunday's game with right-toe discomfort. X-rays were negative, but they're awaiting MRI results.

Anything on Witt? This sounds worse. So I would probably try to avoid, especially because he's been, I mean, he's been better, but still pretty mediocre. Yeah. They have the one early game tomorrow, too, or Monday, I should say, because they have a double header. So that's, that's rough. It's an eight game week for the Royals, but yeah, that's, that's a tricky one with Maryfield. C.J. Cron has missed two straight with a wrist injury.

They got seven home games this week. So, um, I haven't seen any update on this. Would you take the shot on C.J. Crone? I know he's not supposed to go on the IL. They don't think he's going to go on the IL. So that would, I would lean yes on C.J. Cron. All right. Starling Marte was out Sunday with a left groin injury and is going for an MRI.

I think he's not supposed to land on the aisle. What do you guys think about Stalling Marte? I saw that he still may. So that, that's concerning. I would try to avoid him. All right. Last one, Joey Votto has missed seven straight with back tightness. And I mean, I guess you could argue that.

I think you could argue that he's dropable at this point, but unfortunately. Well, I sat him in the 2014 Dynasty League, so. Dropable. Yeah, 12 team or you could drop them potentially. I haven't totally lost hope for him this year, but it's, you know, you got to drop somebody sometimes. Fair enough. All right, by yourself, these pitchers and their recent success, Luis Castillo has now allowed two earned runs total over his last three starts.

And this weekend, he went seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts for 14 swinging strikes, 9 on the fastball. And he's been throwing this four-scene fastball more. And this is something that, you know, we mentioned recently was kind of like in the games where he was great was the ones where he was throwing his four-scene fastball more. So I wonder if that's kind of unlocking Luis Castillo once again.

Scott, what do you think? Buy yourself this recent run for Luis Castillo. Sure, I'll buy it. I am encouraged by the four-seamer use and the fact that it's, you know, become his second best, and miss pitch? Best.

I mean, by far this season. Changeup hasn't even actually been that good of a swing and miss pitch for him. Right. So I don't know. Hopefully he can regain that changeup and then he'll really be in business. He is the, he is an all-star. Luis Castillo was named to the all-star team as the Reds representative.

Well, someone had to be. Hey. He's pitching like it, though. It was either him or Kyle Farmer. Nah, I was going to say Brandon Drury, man. Show my guy some respect. That could have been Jerry.

That's that, yeah. That was one of the more notable hitter snubs, I thought. There were a lot of pitcher snubs. Oh, yeah. Especially in the NL. I mean, it's weird. This is like a different version of Castia than we've ever seen. But I'm buying it, yeah.

I think he's looked really good. Yep. Chris, what do you think about Blake Snell? That's now two straight double-digit strikeout outings in a row. And he went up against the Giants this weekend, six innings, one run, 11 strikeouts. He had 21 swinging strikes on 108 pitches. Trying to see what he's doing differently. the curveball usage is up over these last two starts.

It's a harder curveball too. Yeah, and his curveball and slider, they each have a swinging strike rate over 21%. I mean, that is just absolutely massive. I know the overall numbers, 4.66 ERA is obviously very bad for Snell, but there's some stuff under the hood. What do you think, Chris? Yeah, I mean, the fastball was bad last year too.

It wasn't as bad as it has been this season. The curveball is playing better. this season. I'm not sure exactly what, you know, he's throwing it harder, like Scott said. Maybe that's the last three starts especially. He's thrown it harder and two of them have been great. The first one wasn't, but last two have been.

And so I I'm a little skeptical, but I generally think like, Blake's now throwing more sliders and curveballs is probably a good thing. So I think he's going to continue to be frustrating, but you know, he's remained in like my top 48

starting pitchers. All right. Patrick Sanneval posted a season high, 10 strikeouts at the Baltimore Orioles. He went six and a third, one run, 10 strikeouts. Again, 20 swinging strikes there. His last two starts, he's moved into less foreseen fastballs, more sinkers and changeups, and the ERA is down to 2.95. Scott, are you buying what Patrick Sandeval has been doing recently? Yeah, I'm buying it. He's, you know, emphasizing that change He's not throwing the fastball as much. And specifically the swinging strike rate, in no small measure because of those two changes he's made,

he's made, I'm sure. Over his past six starts, it's 16% swinging strike rate. It's basically what it was last year. Again, remember early on, prior to that six-start stretch, it was like an 11% swinging strike rate, which is really not what we were expecting from Sandoval. We thought he'd be a big bat misser. and he started to perform like that again.

So I'm definitely encouraged by the direction he's headed. All right. Chris, if you're trying to talk, you are muted. Yeah, I was. His foreseeing fastball is an absolute disaster. It wasn't good last season, but it's been even worse so far this year. It has the worst whiff rate of any forcing fastball and baseball, which is bad. 484 expected Wobah allowed on the fastball, also very bad.

you know, his sinker's not a great pitch, but I think given what we've seen this season especially, this is probably a good change for him. Mostly because I think it keeps him from pitching up in the zone, which is what he tries to do with his four-seem fastball, which is what you generally want to do with a four-scene fastball, but he can't do that. So I think the switch to the sinker and focusing more on the change-up, and, you know, the slider's also got a really good swing and miss rate. And even the curveball. So I think this is a good thing. And I'm feeling more optimistic about Patrick Sandball. I was kind of starting to go, you know, he was starting to like creep outside of my top 40. So I think I feel better about him now.

Chris, talk to me about Taiwan Walker because obviously you went to that game. You get to watch Sandy. On the other side, Taiwan Walker has quietly been very, very good. His last six starts, he's got a 1.85 ERA over a strikeout per inning. He's doing some things a little bit differently. 54% ground bowl rate during this stretch. He's up to 90% rostered, so I don't think you can add him. But what do you think?

Are you buying this recent stretch for Taiwan Walker? It's so hard for me to buy when we saw, you know, last season. He made the all. Did he pitch in the All-Star game? Last year? He made the All-Star game last year, I'm pretty sure. He was really good in the first half and then fell apart. So it's hard for me to buy in.

And the peripherals don't necessarily support what he's doing. but you know I think he's useful enough I don't I don't want to like overstate the case for Taiwan Walker but I think he's a fine pitcher to have around probably someone I would be looking to trade right now but if I can't get anything of value for him I'm perfectly content to ride it out while he's you know emphasizing like you said the slider and splitter more you know those are going to be his best pitches So I think that's a good thing for him. But he's not someone I get excited about. He's not someone I want to run away screaming from.

He's in that great blob towards the back half. Fair enough. All right. Let's hit some leftovers, rapid fires. Still a lot of stuff to talk about. So pitchers duels from this weekend. We had Zach Wheeler go up against Adam Wainwright. Wheeler went seven shutout with five strikeouts on the other side.

Wainwright throws a complete game. Gives up two runs, only three strikeouts. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Zach Wheeler and Adam Wainwright? Not really. Zach Wheeler was one of the more notable All-Star Snubs, one of those many pitchers I referred to. The worst of the pitchers was probably Carlos Rodon to be snubbed. I mean, the worst snubbing.

But Wheeler was a bad one, too, I thought. All right. Let's talk about Carlos Rodon because him and you Darvish, they put on a show in San Diego. Carl Sordaun, a complete game here. One run allowed, 12 strikeouts, including 27 swinging strikes. ERA is down to 2.70.

And then U. Darvish, when seven innings of one-run ball, six strikeouts on the other side, 3.38 ERA. He's got a 0.99 whip, which is tied for ninth among qualified starting pitchers, which honestly surprised me. I did not know Hugh Tarvis was pitching that well. Chris, what do you think about these two?

Would you look to sell high on Carlos Rodon after an amazing start like this when you know there's some history there with the shoulder and velocity fluctuations. What do you think? I would be more willing to sell high on you Darvish than Carlos Rodan because I think Carlos Rodon is legitimately great. And the velocity was back up in this one, 96.7 miles per hour, 20 swings and misses with his fastball.

He's one of the few pitchers in baseball who can throw 70% fastballs and get those kind of whiffs. So, no, the injury risk is really all I'm concerned with with Carlos Rodon. He remains not quite top. I think he's top 10 now. Top 8 starting pitcher for me. So I'm still quite high on him and I still expect very good things for him moving forward.

All right. Starters, these pitchers in, let's just say standard 12 team league. Nestor Cortez, his last six starts. He's got a 5.34 ERA. He's going up against the Reds this week. Scott, what do you think? He's an all-star.

That's a fact. Yeah, I mean, he's been trended the wrong way here Not surprisingly He wasn't going to maintain a What was his ERA in the early going? It was like below two, right? For the first couple months? I think he's probably still a top 40 pitcher rest of season But not Like a Cy Young caliber pitcher like he was looking early on

And obviously it helps that he's on the Winning his team in baseball so you know he's always going to have have a lot of support and that makes a big difference. Okay. Would you start them in this one against the Reds? Yeah, with that matchup, I wouldn't be that. I wouldn't be afraid to start Cortez. I think his last start was pretty good, actually, right?

It's been bumpy overall of late, but the previous start was pretty good. Terrick Scoobble got back on track with his first quality start since June 7th. He gave up two runs over six innings with seven strikeouts against the White Sox. Chris, would you start him at the Royals this week? Yeah, I think that's fine. He's still got hit kind of hard in this one, especially with the fastball, but overall better. You know, avoiding walks is the kind of the skeleton key for him. Lucas G. Lito, another rough start this weekend.

Six and two-thirds, five runs, eight strikeouts against the Tigers, and he is at the Guardians this week. Scott would be due there? Take Gileto out. I mean, that's a pretty good matchup, but it doesn't get better than the Tigers. And I was, man, I remember just last week we were talking, Lucas Gialito or Spencer Strider rest of the season, and I think I came around to Strider, but

when I look at Gialito's, like, this is, like, sometimes I feel like we get caught in the granular and miss the big picture. I mean, Gialito has a 505 ERA and 144 whip this season. That's very bad. Yeah. It's not good. I mean, I don't

think that's where his numbers are going to finish. I think he'll probably shave a run off that ERA. But after this start, I'd be, I'd be a little scared of starting him next week. Last one here, Hunter Green turned in his first quality start since June 6th. He went six innings of one-run ball, nine strikeouts against Tampa Bay, including 22 swinging strikes. The ERA is still 5.70, but I mean, he has pretty big strikeout upside each and every time he goes out there.

Scott, what do you think at the Cardinals this week for Hunter? I mean, he was almost my, oh, my goodness gracious player, because he's still only 74% rostered now. 570 ERA, you can kind of understand that. But I think this start was another indication that he's very close to taking it off. He averaged more than 100 miles per hour on his fastball. And this one, it was the second most

100 plus mile per hour pitches for any pitcher ever in a game. I think he's also the leader. That was his second start, I believe. But I read in the Cincinnati Inquirer that he's taken to strength training in between starts in an effort to keep that velocity high from start to start. And he's also kind of altered his slider, made it into two pitches, one that's more like a cutter

and one that's more of a traditional sweeping slider. And I think between those two changes, like the fastball was good enough that he got double-digit swinging strikes on it. And, you know, it's not normally a good swing and miss pitch as hard as he throws it. So if he can continue with those two changes, changes. I think it, I think there's a chance that, uh, that Hunter Green takes off in the second half. So I'd be looking to pick him up any of, in any of those leagues where he's still available.

Scott, would you drop McKenzie Gore for him? Yes. All right. Fair enough. I think that's fine. SP Studs part one. Shea McClanahan makes it 12 straight starts allowing two earned runs or fewer. He goes six, one run, uh, endings of eight strikeout ball at the Cincinnati Reds. It appears Charlie Morton just dislikes pitching in the beginning of the season because he looks fine. Seven endings, two runs, seven strikeouts against the Washington Nationals. And over his last five starts, he's got a 1.60 ERA. For Amber Valdez makes it 14 straight quality starts. This one at the Oakland A's eight innings, three runs, three strikeouts in that start.

And Clayton Kirshaw makes his second double-digit strikeout effort of the season. This one was against the Cubs. He goes seven and two-thirds, two runs, ten, three. strikeouts to zero walks. Chris, anything you'd like to add on Kershaw, Valdez, Morton, and Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks.

Here comes the money. Boom. Those are four very good pitchers. And I think Charlie Morton is back to being a very good pitcher. He's, I think he's back inside my top 30. And, yeah, he's 25 for me. And probably just going to go ahead and move him ahead of Lucas Geolito now. And probably going to move him ahead of Frankie Montas, given, you.

know, the questions about his health. So, yeah, top 24 starting pitcher, Charlie Morton. Hey, three of these four are All-Stars. Keep up with this schick, Scott. I like quite a bit. You know, not everybody. I'm just trying to inform everybody who the All-Stars are. Starting Pitcher Studs part two.

Alec Manoa makes it 14. Quality starts this season, tied for second most in Major League Baseball. He was at the Mariners. He gave up two runs over seven and a third innings of with seven strikeouts there. And Robbie Ray... Yes. Robbie Ray has really turned it around himself.

He's allowed four earned runs total over his last six starts. He goes six, one run, six strikeouts there against his former team, the Blue Jays. And his velocity was way up in this one to 1.7 miles per hour on the sinker, 1.5 miles per hour on the slider. Scotty, Manoa. Robbie Ray, what do you got? Oh, only one's an all-star, but if...

Robbie Ray had been pitching like this from the beginning of the year, he would be too, because his last six starts, Robbie Ray has a .91ER, 0.73 whip, 10.4K per 9. And it seems like the sinker's unlocked everything for him. You know, a lot of times, like with Luis Castillo, we prefer them to go away from the sinker. But it seems like Robbie Ray just is able to locate his lot better than his foreseamer. and even though it's cost him something strikeout wise, you know, he's still getting plenty. So I'm hitting leftovers from the weekend.

Mike Trout with a sock in a shoe on Friday, his 24th home run, and his first steal of the season. Josh Donaldson is heating up, and he had a sock in a shoe on Friday, his ninth home run, his second stolen base. I'm here to tell you that Juan Soto is still good at baseball, his last five games. He's got nine hits, including two home runs.

Michael... All-star. Michael Harris had another massive game on Friday. He went four-for-four with his seventh home run. He added four RBI

and three runs scored. Corey Seeger hit a home run each game this weekend. He has four home runs in his last five games and 19 total. That is a 35 homer pace over 150 games.

His previous career high was... His issue was all Babbup. Yeah, I mean... He's got like his babbips like a hundred points lower than his career. Everything else for Corey Seeger looks awesome. And I saw...

He's batting a round. two 30 and his XBA is close to 300 so it's over 300 when I looked at it today wow yeah so he's yeah big big big uh big second half coming for Corey Seeger superstar the

floodgates the floodgates might be open here for Chris Bryant who had a double dong on Friday and then added another Homer on Saturday I know he was dealing with something that happened on Sunday yeah for me it's just I just I just hope he can

stay healthy because I still believe he's going to be really, really good at Coorsfield as long as he's healthy. Yes. Let's see if I could pull this up quickly. Chris Bryant of the Colorado Rockies is expected to land on the paternity list on Monday, so

that is not great. Especially in a week where they have seven home games. Oh my jeez. I don't even have any shares of Chris Bryant, but that is just so frustrating because... I think you still start him though. Unless you've got like a really good option, I still think like five games of course field from Chris Bryant.

He should feel pretty good about that. Yeah. It's tougher in a points league, but. All right. Fair enough. Get him back in there. Austin Riley, six more hits this weekend, including two home runs.

He's now up to 23 total. And the beef cake. Not an all-star. I think that's the biggest snub of all. Austin Riley. Kyle Schwerber, the beef cake just keeps on. All-star.

Two for five with his 28th home run of the season. Some bullpen updates. We are. Already very late into the podcast. Anyway, the call to the bullpen for the Marlins, not the twins. Tanner Scott pitched in all three games this weekend. He picked up two saves and a loss.

He's been a little shaky recently. He's still 54% rostered. For the Phillies, Sir Anthony Dominguez, pitched in the eighth inning with a two-run lead on Friday. And then Brad Hand picked up his fourth save in that game. And then on Saturday, Dominguez and Hand obviously both pitched on Friday.

Corey Canable picked up his 12th save of this season. That's so annoying. Yeah. Yeah, it's gotten real messy there. Three straight saves by a different person in Philadelphia now. I think Kenebel only got that saved Saturday because Dominguez and Hand had both worked two days in a row. But even if that's the case,

Hand and Dominguez are clearly sharing the role, which makes it hard. Yep. For the Rockies on Friday, Alex Colomay picked up his fourth save. Daniel Bard pitched on both Wednesday and Thursday and then Bard was back at it on Sunday he picked up his 18th save of the season.

For the Cardinals on Saturday, Ryan Helsley entered in a tie game in the eighth inning. He faced 9-1 and 2 in the... I don't know who we're facing. Was it the Phillies? I don't know. Anyway, Giovanni Gaiegos pitched in the ninth inning. He gave up a run and he took the loss in that game.

I think it just further... Ryan Helsley has further entrenched himself as the closer, I think. for the Orioles on Saturday Jorge Lopez struck out two for his 16th save shout out to the Orioles by the way they are playing great baseball I love to see it

for the I think how about the Angels how about the Angels having like Otani and Trout both go three for five with a home run in a game I think that was the game

that Patrick Sandoval pitched really well in and they managed to lose that one we spent all this time talking about how good Reed Detmer Detmer's was they lost that one as well man's crazy

I don't know it's basically since they're like them and the Orioles have basically swapped like how hot they've been this season right so it's yeah it's been very weird it's i don't understand the angels i love the tweets where people are like otani you know breaks some kind of record every single time he plays baseball but the angels lost 11 to 3 or something like that so it's very weird uh for the mariners on saturday Diego castillo picked up his fifth save after paul seawald through 30 pitches on friday and then on sunday uh seawald was back at it he picked up his 10th save

He's been very good. Ken Giles went on the aisle too. So that's one less obstacle for Seawald. But I think Seawald's just the guy. For the twins on Sunday, Tyler Duffy allowed a hit but picked up his second save. And they are searching right now because Duran, they've used at different points of the game, different, you know, high leverage situations. They seem hesitant to make him the closer.

And Emilio Pagana has been terrible. So. Yeah. I don't know. I think they're probably a candidate to go out and trade. for a reliever around this trade deadline season. For the Dodgers on Sunday, Bruce Darkradoral fired two scoreless endings for his third save of the season,

and Craig Kimball had pitched three of the previous four days. To stream or not... Frank, the tweet you're referencing is from at Metamic. Okay. Every time I see an angel's highlight, it's like Mike Trout hit three home runs and raised his average to 528, while Shohei Otani did something

that hasn't been done since tungsten arm O'Doyle of the 1921 Akron Groomsman, as the Tigers defeated the Angels 8 to 3. Yeah, yeah. That's about as accurate as you could possibly be. That pretty much sums it up. When it comes to the Angels. To streamer on to stream for Monday.

Alex Cobb versus the Diamondbacks, Michael Paneda at the Royals. Brad Keller versus the Tigers. Mitch Keller versus the Marlins. Trevor Rogers versus the pirates. Brian Beow at the Rays. Spencer Howard versus the A's. Alex Fayetteau at the Royals. Daniel Lynch versus the Tigers.

I think it's Alex Cobb. I'm going to keep riding that Alex Cobb bike, and it's going to keep leaving me with a scraped knee. He's going to keep doing it. Would you guys? I think Mitch Keller is fine. I think Trevor Rogers is okay. Oh, gosh.

That is fortune favors the brave. I have more faith in Trevor Rogers than you guys do still. I still think you can figure it out. Has he had a fantasy worthy start all year, a single one? He has had one. One quality start in 16 tries this season. He's definitely had fantasy worthy starts. Scott, come on. No, maybe only one. Not many. Not many at all.

Not many on Tuesday. Daniel Castano all five and a third inning one earn run eight strikeouts. Okay. May 14th, dominant. That's another just me. He actually had two decent ones in April. Hey. For Tuesday, we've got Daniel Cassano versus the pirates. Chris flexen at the nationals, David Peterson at the Braves, Josh Weinder versus the Brewers, Mitch White at the Cardinals, Adrian Samson versus the Orioles, Jordan Lyles at the Cubs,

Glenn Otto versus the A's, James Caprillion, at the Rangers, and Bo Briskey at the Royals. I think Chris Flexen against the Nationals is okay. I want to mind David Peterson, even though it's against the Braves. They are, I believe, second in strikeouts. and that's what he's been doing a lot of recently. But obviously there's danger to that too. I think that's fair.

I think we're getting to the time of year where I have to actually write out the teams because every time I see the abbreviations, I'm starting to think of football team names and it's kind of messing with my brain. I'm still not used to commanders, so I'm never going to get that one. Yeah, I had to read Washington like three different times in my mind

and I'm like, what team is this? Is it the football team? Is this the nationals? Anyway, we've gone very long, but that's the weekend recap for you. For Scott and Chris, I am Frank. Thank you for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.