Fantasy Baseball Today - Ohtani is Ridiculous, Evaluating Josiah Gray & Waiver Wire Matchmaker! (8/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

Shohei Ohtani is your unanimous AL MVP (1:12). Freddie Freeman hit for another cycle! ... We have not shown enough love to Avisail Garcia and Max Muncy this season (6:13)! Wander Franco is coming around. ... How should we evaluate what Josiah Gray has done to this point (13:06)? ... News and notes (21:15). Patrick Sandoval and Chris Bassitt went to the IL, we have a Jacob deGrom update and more. .. Let's play waiver wire matchmaker for Miguel Sano, Tylor Megill, Myles Straw and more (30:35). ... Anything to see here with Jesus Sanchez and Brady Singer (43:38)? ... Hey real quick and should you start these SP next week (49:33)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens, streamers and Team Name Thursday (54:40)!  'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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. I drive. Center field. What is magnificent? Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality.

Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam. Joe Hey, Otani is the first player to 40 home runs the season. Oh, and he has a 2.79 ERA as a pitcher. The guy is just unbelievable. Real. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Thursday, August 19th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Howers and Scott White for a Thursday pod. This is awesome. Very excited to have us all together. We don't usually do this on our Wednesday night, Thursday morning, so I am very excited that we've got the band back together. Today on the show, Waiver Wire Matchmaker. Got a few more waiver

ads to talk about. And I'll pull up some players. Can you drop these guys for Frankie two hits? Frankie Schwindell, man. The guy just keeps going. Hey, real quick, stole it from Adam Mazur, and team name Thursday. But let's just start with the AL MVP. The guy is just unbelievable. I mentioned 40 homers, 18 steals for Otani, 269 batting average, a 1011 OPS, eight innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts against the Tigers on Wednesday, 2.790 ARA, 106 whip, 120 strikeouts over 100 innings pitch.

And I don't know if this is how you actually would calculate his war, but I guess just taking from the hitter and the pitcher side, he's got a seven war. The next closest player is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at 5.4. He is unquestionably your American League MVP. And that almost certainly underssells his value because war is, you know, value over replacement player. Well, he's a D.

He's one roster spot and two players. So that adds even more value. If we had a way to calculate that, and I'm sure somebody's working on it or already has, like he's probably having one of the most valuable seasons of all time. Yeah, I mean, look, no one's going to argue that he's a better overall hitter than Mike Trout or a better pitcher than Jacob de Grom. But when you can do both of those things at an elite level,

it's, this is truly something that we've never seen before. And, you know, we make all these hyperbolic statements because, look, we watch baseball a lot, and we cover this every single day. but I mean this is truly one of the best seasons that we've ever seen from a player when you consider that he's doing it both as a hitter and as a pitcher, once again, raise your hand if you have none of his pitching stats

on your roto team. That's me. What's going on, Scott? How you doing? You haven't talked yet. How do you feel about Otani? He's awesome. He is awesome.

Yeah, I mean, just every... He's become so bankable as the starting pitcher that, you know, obviously in like a CBS league where you have to commit to one, him pitching or hitting, going into any given week. You're not really,

you're not really caring that much how he does as a pitcher because you're not getting the benefit of it, as he pointed out. But if you play on one of those other sites that divides him into two players and you have the pitcher version, like, he's just a fixed,

like, when's the last time he had a bad start? He did have one bad start during a very long stretch. So it was like, he's had six straight quality starts. He has four walks during that span, by the way, which is also just amazing. When you consider he had 35 walks over his first 12 starts of the season.

But the start before this six-start stretch was that one against the Yankees where he failed to complete the first inning. Yeah, he had seven earn runs. If you take that start out, he has a 217 ERA this season. It's crazy. He's going to, if he stays healthy,

he's probably got, what, six starts left? Something like that? Yeah, sounds about right. probably looking at about 130 innings of a maybe 2-7 ERA, probably sub-3 at the pace he's at least, and one of the four or five best hitters in baseball. It's absurd. Yeah, and shout out to you, Chris,

because I know that you've had them ranked inside your top 30 starting pitchers for a large portion of this season. I just recently moved him inside of my top 30, but that's more so for leagues and formats where I guess it's two separate players. but if you have that starting pitcher option, I know they do that on Yahoo. Yeah, he's legitimately a top 30 starting pitcher. He might even be better than that.

The other player who was, you know, just did something awesome, historic on Wednesday. Freddie Freeman, he hit for his second cycle of his career. He did that by the sixth inning, by the way, which is just hilarious. He's now batting 301 with 27 home runs. I was about to send out a tweet, making fun of how slow Freddie Freeman is.

But he's like, he's not actually slow. Like, he's slow, but like, he's sneaky, you know? It's weird. I don't know how to explain it. It's like, Pujols used to steal bases, but he was never fast. That's kind of how Freddie Freeman is. So, Scott, this is your guy on the Atlanta Braves. The Braves, by the way, surging, first place in the NLEs.

Congratulations. This is an awesome accomplishment for Freddie Freeman. Yeah, it is an awesome accomplishment. It turns out he's having another awesome year. Remember, for a while there, we were pretty disappointed in Freddie Freeman's production, but I know the three of us on this podcast were consistent in saying well look at the underlying numbers

look at the stat cast data he looks like typical Freddie Freeman he's going to come around and that's basically happened it started actually before the All-Star break but now he has his batting average up over 300 again he's already hit the third most home runs he's ever hit in a season

and obviously there's still a month and a half to go so yeah Freddie Freeman I think he's going to be an obvious first round pick again next year and there's no reason to think he's slowing down. All right, everyone knows Otani's awesome. Everyone knows Freddie Freeman is awesome. Let's talk about players that maybe we don't talk about enough. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, Scotty, where would you like to get us started? Yeah, so one guy I feel like we haven't talked about much at all this year, unless it was on one of those rare podcasts I missed, one of those rare Thursday podcasts. They missed.

Freddie Freeman. No, not Freddie Freeman. Avi Seil Garcia hit two home runs on Wednesday, 22nd and 23rd of the year. This is already a career high for him, by the way. The most he had hit previously in a season was 20. And since the start of July, he's been especially hot, batting 350 with eight home runs since the start of July is Avisal Garcia.

I mean, it hasn't gotten a lot of hype, as I pointed out, but he's having the best year he's ever had. And it's frustrating for me because I was very high on him going into last year, moving from Tampa Bay to Milwaukee. And I thought he was going to have a breakout, drafted him late in a lot of leagues, and it was terrible. He was terrible and didn't even end up playing regularly.

And so, of course, I was off him this year. It was a year early on Avi Saw Garcia. I pointed out how good he's been since July, but if you just look at his season long numbers, specifically, you look at head-to-head points per game. Obisal Garcia has more than Alex Verdugo. He has more than Trey Mancini. He's more than Adam Frazier. He's not that far behind like Joey Gallo.

So, oh, he's added to Jared Walsh now, as much as Jared Walsh is. slowed down. So yeah, I mean, Alvaisal Garcia, even at the three outfielder league, very much in startable territory. And just quietly having the breakout season, I hoped he'd have last year. Yeah, and you mentioned what he's done in fantasy points per game. He's also the 66th ranked player in Roto, and that's going into Wednesday before he added those two home runs. Very sneakily has stolen six bases this season, Evisail Garcia. And the stat cast numbers back it up. 283 expected batting average. 507 expected

slug. I feel like we've been waiting a while for Garcia to put together just one of these breakout seasons and it looks like it is happening right now. So continue to leave him in your lineup. He's 87% rostered so maybe in some really shallow leagues, 8, 10 team leagues, but

outside of that, I would assume he's rostered everywhere else. Chris. He's been under-rostered pretty much all year though. Yeah, I mean... There was a long stretcher. He was in like the 60% range. He wasn't available in any of my leagues, but But he's been providing surplus value for a long time this season. Yep. Oh, my goodness gracious for you, Chris.

Well, since we already talked about the American League MVP, how about potential National League MVP? And right now, maybe probable National League MVP, Max Muncie. He's got five home runs in his last four games. He hit two today. He does lead the NL in Fangraphs and Baseball reference. War, baseball reference is actually a little higher on him. He is up to, he's close.

to a thousand OPS. He's up to 983. And you know, something I was thinking about the other day is like we should do a segment about players we haven't really, like really good players who we haven't really talked about much this season. I feel like Max Muncie would be on that list.

Which is weird because he's having the best season of his career coming off a really bad season in 2020 where you know, people were kind of worried oh maybe, you know, the late breakout was finally getting figured out. But no, he's got the best expected stats of his career.

He's actually underperforming his ex-Woba, as incredible as that may seem, given how good he's actually been. Max Muncie is a hell of a player. Yeah, and the improvement in the batting average is probably the most surprising. He's up to 276 now. 82% strikeout rate. Yeah, that's just phenomenal.

He's right around an 18% strikeout rate, maybe a little lower against lefties. I think he's at, coming into tonight, I don't know if he had any played appearances against lefties, but coming into tonight, he had a 16% strikeout rate against lefties. Well, that's the thing about Muncie is ever since this breakout started with the Dodgers, he's always been good against lefties. And early on in that Dodger career, you know,

they weren't playing him against lefties because, I mean, they really need to see a lot before they trust a player to play them every day. That's just kind of the Dodger way. We've seen that with... They always have so many players to play. Exactly, yeah. But we've seen it a lot with like Gavin Lux's and some of their younger players. but once he started to prove it, they just let him go. And he's awesome against left-handed pitching. So yeah, shout out to Max Muncie.

Another player I was going to save for later, who we really haven't talked about at all this season. I don't know that we've mentioned his name a single time. Kyle Seeger has 27 home runs for the Seattle Mariners, albeit with a 218 batting average, 740 OPS. But look, 27 home runs is nothing to sneeze at. So I don't know that we've said his name a single time this year. By the way, both Seeger brothers have homered on Wednesday.

so I don't think that happens very often, but it's definitely worth mentioning. Shout out to Max Munzi. And I don't know how often all three of our oh my goodness gracious players are hitters, but here we go. We did it. We did it.

Wander Franco. Maybe not the best night for pitchers. Yeah. I mean, there was nothing really notable. I mean, we'll get to Marco Gonzalez, don't you wait. But Wander Franco, three for four with a double a walk,

two RBI with the Tampa Bay raise. And in the second half now, He's batting 288, four homers, 845 OPS, 14% strikeout rate, 22% line drive rate. We've seen this with a few of these prospects now where, okay, the first month or so, struggles, we kind of worry, but then they turn it on. And Wander Franco, I think if you just watch him and his approach at the plate, specifically his plate discipline, like, he gets it, he knows. Like, he has really good control over the strike zone.

and he makes a pretty, pretty loud contact. Not that, you know, I'm looking at the average X velocity. It's not great or anything, but I think Wanda Franco is just going to, he's going to be just fine. That's basically the whole point of this. Yeah, he's still not hitting righties super well. Yeah. Which remains a concern, but, you know, not necessarily something that I'm too concerned about moving forward because it wasn't really a problem in the miners.

But that's, you know, if you're looking for an area to watch for improvement over in the last month and a half of the season. I think that would be it. But yeah, I think you have to be very pleased with the way he's played lately. Yeah, 100%. So if you held on to Wander Franco, get that man back in your lineup

because he is hot. And from the best prospect in baseball to one of the top pitching prospects, I did want to talk about him early on here. Josiah Gray, up against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, six innings, two runs, only four strikeouts, but did have 14 swinging strikes

on 87 pitches. Ten of those came on the slider, and I love that he only had one walk in this game. The reason being, he gave up two more home runs, and he has now allowed seven home runs in four starts with the Washington Nationals. And I mentioned this before.

I think maybe you and I were talking about it, Scott. You can get away with giving up home runs as long as they're solo home runs, and you're not walking that many guys. Verlander, Max Scherzer, they've made a career out of it. I'm not saying Josiah Gray is going to be as good as those guys,

but that's kind of like his path to making this work if he's going to give up this many fly balls. Scott, what do you think about what you saw from Josiah Gray? Are you worried about this 60% fly ball rate down the stretch? Yes, I'm worried about that because that's probably, you know, leaving out a kind of compiler stat like X-FIP. Ground ball rate, fly-ball rate,

how often a pitcher puts the ball in the grounder in the air. That's probably the second most important thing to me about a pitcher. But the most important thing is how many swings and misses he gets. Josiah Gray has been such a standout there. Consistently, it's getting called

up even those bad starts with the Dodgers. I'm more excited about that than I am nervous about the fly balls. But obviously I wish the fly ball rate was lower. That would I'd probably be over the moon for Josiah Gray at this point if that was the case. You know, stat cast numbers do suggest that he's perhaps been a bit unlucky.

He's got a 344 Wobah allowed with a 294X Woba. So, you know, maybe that's a place where, you know, even with the home runs, you know, he does have a 23.5 degree average launch angle, which is absurdly high for a pitcher. And something that you would probably think will come down at some point. but the quality of contact against him has been very low. Yeah, I think that would be the right way to say it. So, you know, I do think there are reasons to be pretty optimistic about him. I have questions about his overall upside.

You know, I don't know if he's necessarily someone who can be like a top 15 starting pitcher, but he's also a talented young pitcher, and so you can never really put a ceiling on any of them. But yeah, I'm pretty happy with what he's shown so far. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to project pitchers, you know, that far down the line. And obviously projecting for top 15 would be a very high upside. But he has shown the ability to get whiffs this year. I mean, a 17% swinging strike rate entering Wednesday and then 14 more swinging strikes.

If he keeps the walks down, I think there's a very, very high ceiling here for Josiah Gray. He's 74% rostered. Go ahead, Scott. I would guess most of the pitchers. we consider to be in the top 15 now, we would look at when they were first breaking in and say, I don't know that he has top 15 potential just because it's hard to pinpoint exactly who those guys are.

I mean, Jacob de Grom wasn't that guy. Shane Bieber wasn't that guy. Scherzer probably was. Scherzer, you could make the argument was Garrett Cole. Garrette. Jack Flaherty, no. Lance Lynn, obviously not. Brandon Woodruff, no.

Corbyn Burns, no. Yeah, I mean, it's... Yeah. It's... That's a difficult needle to thread. And even like, Zach Wheeler, when he got called up, yes. Once we saw him pitch, no. For like six years.

Yeah. And now, yes, Kevin Gossman. Same thing. Yeah. For a long time. It took a winding route to that top 15 status. Aranola was certainly not someone that we viewed as like a high, high upside pitch. Yeah, it was more of a high.

floor guy. Sandy Alcantara, definitely not. Kevin Gosman, by the way. One of these days, we got to talk about him because something's not right with Kevin Gosman right now. Just want to wrap up with Josiah Gray. He's 74% rostered. I don't know that he needs to be universally rostered for the rest of the season,

but I think he should be for at least next week because he's projected for two starts at the Marlins and at the New York Mets. So those are obviously fantastic matchups right now. And especially if you're listening to a Mets owner, Steve Cohen. who called out his team via Twitter, which I don't know, it's just kind of like a weird thing to do, but he had this to say,

it's hard to understand how professional hitters can be this unproductive. I was just like, I'll just say, oh, he's passionate, blah, blah, blah. But like,

if you're the owner who spent all off season, we're going to spend whatever it takes to build a winner. And then, like, you didn't in the off season. And then at the trade deadline, you gave up better prospects so the Cubs would pay more of Javier Baez's salary. One, you definitely don't get to complain

about your team's plate discipline when Javier Baez was your big trade deadline acquisition. And two, just shut up. Like, you have not done what you said you were going to do so far as an owner, so just stop. I mean, you don't need to hear it. He traded for Lindor and he gave him a massive contract extension.

Right, that's the bare minimum. But that's also much more than the Will Ponds would have ever done. so in comparison. You can trip over a low enough bar. Yeah, that's true. Before we get to news and notes, fantasy football today, draft prepping for charity month.

Supporting St. Jude is underway throughout the month. The FFT crew will have various eBay auctions supporting St. Jude culminating in the six-hour draft-a-thon event on September 1st. Up forbid our pre-draft calls with fantasy experts.

Are you one of those, Chris? I did one of my calls today. Oh, nice. to a couple of people, gave them some advice. It was good. It was nice. Very nice. You can also earn a spot in an expert fantasy league, a custom-designed fantasy football team logo,

and more, and I mentioned yesterday, one of those is drink a beer with Heath Cummings, which sounds pretty fun via Zoom, obviously. Go to CBSports.com slash eBay to donate and bid. Again, that's CVSports.com slash eBay. And, Chris, I am in the process. I hit you up the other day, ask you if you want to play softball.

I'm in the process of making our softball team this fall. Now, I'm working on a few things because it's a co-ed league, and I really, I don't know many women that want to play softball or decent at softball. So if you have anybody in mind, or if you are listening to this podcast and you are a woman and would like to play softball with us, please hit us up. Email me, frank.

That's handful at CBS interacted.com. In Brooklyn, by the way. Important to stay that. Any fun. We do have team name Thursday. day later on today. I'll let you use the rest of this podcast to think about it. But let's try and think of a fun team name for our softball team because I'm not really good at that. And obviously, you're much better than me. I also want to point out, if you want to play in the Scott Fish Bowl

for 2022, there are four opportunities right now. And you can play in Franks League right now for $248, which is the most reasonably priced because, like, people are, people are, people are putting in big bids for this thing, which is awesome. I love to see it. We're raising money for a great charity. Fantastic. We've actually already surpassed last year's total and money raised and we still have two weeks left, which is amazing. Thank you so much to everyone who's contributed. But yeah, if you want to play in the Scott Fishbowl, go look for Frank. Put that link in the notes. I'll throw it in there. Yeah, throw the whole eBay page up there, but especially your spot in the Scott Fishbowl. Let's get that number up. Yeah, let's do that. The most reason

Presumably prized. If you want to play and obviously beat me in fantasy football, please come join. News and notes from Wednesday. Our, unfortunately our guy, Patrick Sandoval went to the IL with a lumbar spine stress reaction. Joe Madden is so sad. Joe Madden said the injury has the potential to be season ending, though there is no clear timetable. Jose Cantana will start on Thursday. It kind of sounds like we could drop Patrick Sandival. Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't take that as to mean that the injury is especially serious, just that any injury especially to a pitcher, we're at the point in the season where they all have the chance to be a season ender. We're just running out of time for them to build up again. If I could give a ghoulish take about this injury for Patrick Sandoval, I think this is perfect timing for his 2022 value. The buy-in wasn't complete yet. he was still available in a third of CBS sports leagues despite our constant badgering.

And I think there are going to be a lot of detractors next year. A lot of people second-guessing the hype. I will not be among them. I will be investing in Patrick Sandoval earnestly next year. And he'll be one of my top breakout pitcher candidates, partly because I think we've already seen the breakout. The crystal ball. Look at the crystal ball, Scott.

What are we thinking? Top 50, top 40 starting pitcher? In terms of where I draft him or how good he could be? Because I already ranked him in the top 40 before he got hurt. Okay, so he'll probably be... I mean, he could be top 20. That's how good I think he could be. He's got as good swinging this stuff as anybody short of Garrett Cole.

So, I mean, short of Jacob de Grom. I just meant, like, where are you going to rank him? Where am I going to rank him? Yeah. Well, somebody was asking me if he'd be like my John Means next year. Somebody on Twitter was asking that. And yes, and that he's probably the pitcher I'll be beating the drum for most. But I have more confidence in Sandoval than I did in John Means heading into this year.

So I will probably be looking to draft him just outside the top 10 rounds. And if it turns out his ADP is higher than that, which I guess is possible, I'll probably still be willing to draft him there too. It won't be. It won't be, Scott. You will have a lot of Patrick Sandoval next season. Say it with me, Sandoval means. business. We have an update on Chris Bassett. He's been placed on the IL and is expected to undergo surgery August 24th to repair the displaced and fractured bones on his right cheek. Chris Bassett will need six weeks to fully recover, which means, unfortunately, it's like weird to bring this up because

I care about Chris Bassett. I want him to be all right, but we can drop him in fantasy, right? Yes. Yeah, I mean, honestly, it sounds like it was like a best case scenario in terms of the outcomes. Because his vision is fine. His scans came all back. You know, okay. So honestly,

it's a positive outcome, all things considered. Scott, should we look to add Dalton Jeffries with the hope that he can join the rotation? He has allowed two earned runs over his last two starts at AAA.

I would not be in a rush to do that. No, outside of deeper leagues. I think there's a chance he could emerge as a useful pitcher, but I would say the odds. are against it. 10% rostered is Dalton Jeffries,

a name to pay attention to for now. Throw him on the scout team. Freddie Peralto left Wednesday start with right shoulder discomfort. Obviously, this is terrible because he's been a top 20 starting pitcher for most of the season. We're awaiting further details on a timetable

and whether or not he'll hit the I-L. Jacob de Grom was told after his doctor's appointment Monday that the inflammation in his right elbow is improving, but he'll remain shut down from throwing until at least August 27th. And according to Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated, the Mets are leaning towards shutting down to Grom for the remainder of the seasons.

I guess don't drop them yet, but it looks like things are trending in that direction. We'll probably get some news in the coming days. Aroldus Chapman and Anthony Rizzo were both activated by the Yankees on Wednesday. Rizzo was batting second. Aroldus Chapman started the ninth inning with a four-run lead.

He gave up two hits, a walk. One-earned run. His fastball velo was down 1.7 miles per hour. slider was down 1.2 miles per hour. Something to watch, obviously he was dealing with an elbow injury, so we'll see with a roll of Shatman. The Blue Jays placed Alec Manoa on the bereavement list, which means he'll miss between three and seven days.

George Springer was diagnosed with a grade one left knee sprain. He went on the IL the other day for that, which is relatively minor, so that's good news. He is week to week for now. Anthony Descalfani left his start due to right ankle soreness. It doesn't seem too serious. He's day-to-day. Pete Alonzo left Wednesday's game after getting hit by a pitch on his elbow.

X-rays came back negative. Reese Hoskins is doing better and could return from the IL on Friday. And how about this? Lance Lynn was ejected after throwing his belt at the umpire during a foreign substance check. Never...

Such a curmudgeon. Never seen that before. He's always so angry. I never realized. I mean, I saw somebody posted a clip of him cursing at himself. like, yeah, eight pitches into the start. It's...

And then, yeah, he just, you know, tossed the belt. It wasn't, you know, I saw people tweeting about, oh, he threw his belt. I saw it. He, you know, he tossed it. It was frustrated about the check happening, I guess, was the... Yeah, he walked to the dugout,

then the umpire called him back. He left his glove and hat on the railing of the dugout, went inside, then the empire asked for him for his bell, and he just kind of took it off and tossed it. It's funny how Lance Lynn's disposition has become a meme late in his career here. Like he's been around for so long. I feel like somebody would have pointed this out by now. It's kind of like how Bartolo Cologne became a meme very late in his very long career.

Or kind of like how I didn't know Liam Hendrix was Australian until the All-Star Game. What? Just had no idea. I had no idea until the All-Star game. Oh, man. You know, it's funny. I don't know how I missed that. information.

I don't know. You know, it's kind of funny how you bring up Lance Lynn comparing to Bartolo Colon. Not that I'm body shaming. I'm more so body advocating, but, you know, they're kind of going down a similar route as their...

Look, man. Their careers progress. It's a baseball body. Sure. That's one of the things you love about baseball is there's guys that look like me out there. I mean, I'm all about it, man. Yankee fans, C.C. Sabathia.

He was awesome for a long time. I mean, there's probably something to that. I mean, Williams, A studio got a lot of... Well, no, this is something Bill James wrote about in like the 2000 historical abstract writing about Kirby

Puckett as one in his like 100 greatest outfielders fall time or whatever and he posits that like short, stout, dense body types may be good for baseball which makes sense. It's all about you know quick twitch

and you know generating a lot of power from rotations. So I think there's something to it. Well this whole conversation started with Lanslin getting a foreign substance check, substance check, which leads me to Caleb Smith, who was ejected from Wednesday's game against the Phillies. Due to the use of a foreign substance, I was watching this game, apparently it was the same umpire crew that ejected Hector Santiago earlier in the season. So, I don't know, maybe it's just

something with these umpires that they're more strict than others, but whatever. Caleb Smith. Kwangyan Kim was, we'll begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. Akil Badu and Derek Hill, both started rehab on Wednesday. Anthony Santander sat Wednesday due to a sore ankle. I did see that he entered that game as a defensive replacement later on. Potentially massive news, specifically for you, Chris.

Our old buddy, John Gant is starting Thursday against the Yankees. Oh, my, I'm going to the game tomorrow. Are you really? I'm going on Friday. Oh, my God, I need to buy John Gant jersey. His number one fan will be in attendance. That is awesome. Any thoughts?

Oh, no, I already talked about this. I didn't even realize I was about to bring up Steve Cohen again. That's how fun it is. Let's take a quick break. When we return, the waiver wire matchmaker next here on fantasy baseball today. Waiver Wire matchmaker, let's start with Miguel Sineau. He hit a 475 foot homer. And in the second half, very quietly hitting 262, five homers,

an 87 OPS, is Miguel Sineau. He's 54% rostered, has first and third base eligibility. Six games next week, including three against left-hand. pitching. Scott, your interest level in Miguel Seno and I'm going to pick up, I'm going to pull up some third baseman that maybe we could drop from. I don't like players like Miguel

Sanoe because I don't, I'm not willing to stick with them when things start going bad. I mean even like Joey Gallo, who has a longer history of delivering year after year, you know, I had him

in a league last year. Which, you know, the final numbers ended up terrible, but that's partly because the season was cut off before he had a chance to bounce back. But I even ended up benching Joey Gallo in the league where I had him last year. I just, I understand picking up Miguel Snow off the waiver wire if you're chasing home runs. I mean, that's obviously a rational strategy. But like, just in terms of do I like him or not, no, I don't. I'd rather not have to do that. Scott is overcomplicating this question.

Okay. If like a good stretch for Miguel Sano is five home runs in 30 games, that's not really worth chasing. I hear you there. What's that? No, keep going. Yeah, like it's been 29 games now since the All-Star break. He is hitting 260, but that's with like a 350 Babbup.

And he has five home runs. It's like a 25 homer pace. It's just he can get hot at any time and crank out. got a bunch of home runs. Well, that's the thing. I mean, if you're facing home runs. I don't think this is a precursor to that. I don't think there is more reason to believe Miguel Seno is about to hit a bunch of

home runs than normal. He has, he still has an elite power profile. Yes. With the exit velocity, the hard hit rate, the launch angle. I don't think,

yeah, I mean, I don't think his outlook has changed, period, you know, based on what he's done recently or not. Yeah, I mean,

he's one of those players where, you know, this time of year, we're looking for potential league winners. And when he gets hot, he gets hot. But you're right. If you're in like fifth place and you don't really have like a clear path in a Roto league to get better, it might be worth swapping him in and just seeing if he can hit 10 home runs in the rest of the season.

You know, that's entirely possible. He's got that kind of skill set. All right. Well, the point of this was matchmaker. So I'm going to try and find some players that we can maybe drop for Miguel to know. Would you guys drop Ryan McMahon? He's still 97%.

rostered. Yeah. I think so, yeah. Would you drop Yohan Moncata 94% rostered? He really has not done much this season. I don't like the idea of that. I could see doing it based on category need, but if we're talking about just like a points league or whatever, no.

Would you? I think I probably would. Would you drop, again, E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. H. H.S.A., we could drop Suarez for, like, anybody, right? anybody. Yeah. Yeah.

So, no. anybody else. Anybody want? Cabrion Hayes, 74%. I still think I'd rather have Cabrion Hayes' upside. Unless you're specifically chasing home runs, yeah. Okay, last one I'll give you Mike Musacchakas.

Muscox could go on a similar run. The problem, I want to see how they've divvied up playing time. Yeah, I mean, Muscois and Suarez have basically alternated, starts at third base since Mustakis'is' return. So I feel like the issue with Swar, I mean, the biggest issue for Suarez now is he's not playing every day. He was providing home runs what he was. So no, I would not, I would rather have to know the Moustakis. All right. Next up, we have Tyler McGill. He was at the Giants on Wednesday,

six innings, one run, six strikeouts. He had 16 swinging strikes on 90 pitches against a lineup that doesn't typically swing and miss all that much. He had nine of those on his fastball. He's got a 3.21 ERA at this point. He's 63% rostered and looks like he is scheduled to face the Giants and the Nationals next week. Chris, two starts.

Under 70% rostered. Okay matchups. What do you think? Yeah, I think he can be I think you can make a case. He should be like 85, 90% rostered next week. You know, I don't know how many points

leagues he's not rostered in right now, but certainly should be universal on points leagues with the two-start week coming up. He's pretty good, or at least he's been pretty good. I don't know what to actually make of it because he didn't have very much pedigree or hype coming in, but a lot of the underlying numbers, mostly suggests that he's been pretty good at limiting damage on contact,

and he's getting more than a strikeout per inning. So I kind of like McGill. All right, Scott, would you, let's play matchmaker. Would you drop Taiwan Walker for Tyler McGill? Hmm, that's about the same range for me. I was definitely cooling on McGill prior to this start. The previous three starts were all pretty shaky. But he was, you know, this may have been his best start,

the one he just put in here Wednesday. Certainly the swinging strike total 16 of those was the highest he's had. I think I'd stick with Taiwan Walker, but it's close. Would you find dropping Walker? Would you drop Dallas Kikele, 84% rostered? Yes. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Nick Povetta, 83%.

Yeah, sure. Stephen Mads, 80%. People really bought in when we talked about Stephen Mads for, I don't know, the first two weeks of the season. I was never on board with that. Just to be clear. Oh, okay, okay. I never was.

All right, all right. We're pointing the finger at somebody that way, which will point. Okay, okay, Zach, please that, guys. All right, you want to talk about, you want to talk about, I didn't bring up his starting, oh my goodness, gracious for a reason. I mean, because I wanted to be,

numbers were good once upon a time. If you want to talk about PLEASC now, I was going to save it for later, the guy stinks. You can drop him for nearly anybody. He's, what is he? I think he's still 80%. Where is this?

I think it's more than that. I think it's over 90%. Plesack. No, 89% rostered. But, but, but he faces the Texas Rangers next week. The Rangers are,

awful. They are so, so bad. So you can drop them, but I'm just saying if you need a streamer, in a 15th team league, I'm going to start Zach Pleasack next week. Not that. I really would condone that for anyone else. All right, last name here. Casey Mize, would you drop him for Tyler McGill? Yes, I'd be fine with that.

All right, next up we have Miles Straw, Scott White's favorite outfielder in fantasy baseball. He went one for four with a double in RBI, two walks, two run scored, and his 21st steel of the season. He's 49% rostered. six home games against the Rangers and the Red Sox next week. He will not be facing Chris Sale, according to what I saw. Scott, talk about Miles Straw while I find some other speedy outfielders that we could drop for him.

Yeah, Miles Straw is playing every day, and seems like he's running more regularly with Cleveland than with Houston. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, the thing about a speed specialist these days is like speed specialist back in the day, used to steal 60 bases and now speed specialists today are lucky to get 25 and it's just like

I don't know I don't know that it's worth falling behind in all those other categories Can we get to 30? Can we get nine steals in six weeks? I think we can.

I think we can. Yeah, I think he could and you know, he's like I think he's also, I think he's kind of a two and a half court category guy at least. You know, I'm not going to say

He's a helpful hitter in batting average, but I think he's a small plus sign, you know, like this big. And he's scoring a decent amount of runs with Cleveland. If he's batting leadoff, yeah, I mean, he should help and runs. His OPP for the years 342, that's not bad. Yeah, I think he's underrated. He's under-rastered. This is the most optimistic Scott has talked about Miles Straw all season long.

Yeah. We finally did it. He's not my kind of guy. I understand, you know, we're in August and you're limited to what's available on waivers, so, I mean, you can't nitpick too much, but obviously limits to what Miles Straw can do for you. All right, let's play Matchmaker.

Would you drop Randall Gritchick, he's 80% rostered? All categories being equal, no. Would you drop Max Kepler, 78%. Seems very category-dependent. I mean, we're really only talking about Miles Straw on Categories leagues, by the way, and really just traditional 5 by 5 because if you start doing 6 by 6 and up,

how valuable are stolen bases, really. Yeah. So just keep that in mind for all these answers. But I would say in a Categories league, you know, it depends what you need. If you need home runs more than stick with Kepler, but if you need stolen bases, more, go with straw. All right, Chris, would you drop Jeff McNeil for Miles Straw?

Probably not, but I don't know. McNeil might just be a one category guy at this point. All right, last one. Kike Hernandez, known as Enrique Hernandez on CBS, is still 73% rostered. I'd be fine dropping him. He's been great, though, for the last couple months.

I had to move him way up in my rankings. I'd rather stick with Hernandez. He's a lead-off hitter, too. Last one I wanted to mention, Frankie two hits, Frank Schwindel. This is all he does. He went two-for-four with a double in RBI. I think he had the same exact stat line yesterday.

he's now batting 329 with a 994 OPS. He's 18% rostered. Let's find, let's find some first baseman that we can, that we can drop here for, for good old Frank Schwindell. Well, I try to pick this up. Chris, you haven't talked about Frank Schwendell yet.

What are your thoughts on him? I don't see a ton of reasons to be excited about him, you know, in his batted ball profile. Like, it all looks just kind of fine. His expected Wobas 347, which is fine. His expected batting average 278. It's all fine, but you're talking about, you know,

someone who's who looks fine in an 83 plate appearance sample size. So I don't, I'd be fine with him over Hunter Dozier, sure. You know, there's a devil you don't know aspect to it, but I'm not. I don't see much reason to rush out and grab him. All right. Can I find some questionable first baseman? You know, I didn't realize Lordas Guerrille has first base eligibility. That's pretty interesting.

His playing time has been cut. Can we drop Guriel for, I don't know, any of the names that we've mentioned to this point? Sineau, Straw, Dozier, Frank Schwendell? Or is that going too far? Let me see how much is playing time's been cut? I'd prefer not to. and by the way, Frank Trundell has done nothing against anything but fastballs

so far this season. Lourdes-Guriel has set out three of the last six games. Yeah, he's not... Man, he's sitting a lot. No, that was a big miss for me. It depends how urgently you need help, I guess.

I mean, at this point, how likely is it that Guerrille's going to get hot enough to win back full-time at bats? I don't know. I mean, I get what Chris is saying with Schwendell, and certainly the odds are against him being an impact contributor, but he's always just between his minor league numbers and he's had two huge spring trainings before,

and I just always kind of wanted him to get a chance, and now that he's getting it, he's playing well. I would be fine dropping Laris Gurriel. Yeah, I think that's where I'm at just to see, because I don't feel like Gurriel, except maybe in a deep five outfielder league. It just doesn't seem that usable right now. Yeah.

A few names that I would drop for Schwindel, Dominic Smith. I mean, Chris, you want to talk about misses. I'll take a big le-hoo Zahir on Dominic Smith. I would drop him for Frank Schwendell at this point. I would drop Nate Lowe, another one that I liked quite a bit early on in the season. Anyone else stand out here? Nah, I mean, those are a few names there, but the guy's playing well. So pick them up, see where it goes.

Anything to see here. Let's run through this a little bit quickly. Hazu Sanchez hit an upper tank home run. Lefty on lefty against Will Smith. He's 25% rostered. Six home games next week. Chris, anything to see here, Hazu Sanchez.

I think Hazer Sanchez is just going to give us one huge home run every three or four weeks to make us buy in. But he's so talented, but the numbers just haven't been there for him really. Kind of ever. Yeah. I have no reason to actually buy in on him outside of the fact that I acquired him in Scott's Dynasty League. but I mean, he looks the part.

You watch him play, he has swag. Like, the guy understands the strike zone. He really does. Like, I watch a lot of his at bats. But 30% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate. Obviously, that's not going to work. He's got a ground ball rate over 50%. His max exit velocity is in the 83rd percentile.

So when he makes contact, he can hit it hard, but he kind of needs to go through to this Vladimir Guerrero transformation where he's got to lift the ball more. There's just no question about it. Scouts have been higher on him. then his numbers basically his whole career. Well, I do want to point out this was his 26th game in the majors this year, so I don't know that we need to dissect the K rate, the ground ball rate that much.

For this year, I mean, I don't have particularly high hopes for Jesus Sanchez, but in our 2014 Dynasty League, Frank, I don't think you should lose faith yet. No, no, I'm not. And like, the only reason I bring up those numbers in particular is because they've been questionable at the minor league level, too. The strikeouts have been high. walks have been low. The ground balls have been... His career of strikeout raid in the minors is...

Oh, I can't find it. He had one year where it was bad. But for most of his minorly career, it's been around 20%. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's actually better than I thought. All right, Scott, you made me feel better about Hazu Sanchez. Brady's singer for most of the season has been very bad, but he was pretty good on Wednesday. Six and two-thirds, two runs, six strikeouts against the Houston Astros of all teams. He only had three swinging strikes on 92 pitches. The velocity was up. two miles per hour on his slider in this one. Scott, anything to see on Brady Singer? No, it's going to take a lot more than this to win me over.

Yes, especially when he's at the Houston Astros again next week. So don't love that. Chris, back to you, your guy, Ian Hat. Five hits, two homers over his last three games. I don't think there's anything there yet, but I think we need to just pay attention. Let's see where it goes. Big L for me so far on Ian Hap.

But yeah, he's someone I'm always going to be interested. And I like the skill set. I believe in it. I'm not sure what went wrong this season. Except that it's the same thing that I went wrong before. Today's podcast has been very big on transparency and admitting defeat. I mean, yesterday I went back and looked at my breakouts and bus columns. So it's fresh on your mind.

It's been, I had Kevin Gosman as a bust. Way to go, Chris. Well, the thing is you weren't going against the. the grain in backing Lorda Scurriel, who I don't know that anybody was down on. I was high on the real too. And you weren't going to Grins to Grane with Ian Hap either. He was a very trendy breakout. I was much higher on him than most people, though. He was like a top 75 player for me. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, did you Brady Singer before. I'm going to give you another fun one.

Andrew Heaney, up against the Red Sox, seven innings, one, one, run for strikeouts. Before this, he allowed 15 earned runs over his last previous three starts. Anything to see? Nah. The bargain with Heaney was, well, he's going to miss so many bats that, you know, on the days where he doesn't give a baton of home runs, he might be worth it, but he's not even doing that. So here's the, the cautionary tale for Josiah Gray. True. Yeah. I mean, it's too early to say, but how Josiah Gray's career is going to play out.

Right, right, right. I'm just saying. If it goes wrong, it could look like Andrew Heaney's, yeah. Don't you put that evil on Josiah Gray. That is a player type I really like. I've always been a Heaney guy. I've always been a Stephen Mats, even to a certain extent, has a similar profile.

It's the Ricky and Alaska profile. A little bit, yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. The margin is razor thin if you give up that many home runs. You'll have stretches. Vince Velasquez, another guy, Nick Povetta. There will be stretches where you can look really, really good, but you've got to really be overpowering to overcome that kind of bad at ball profile. Shout out to Andrew Heaney, though.

Break out the brooms. Yankees sweep the Red Sox. I haven't pissed anybody off in quite a bit. So just thought I would play this for you guys. Of all the dramatic things I've ever seen. That's right. Andrew Heaney. Last one I wanted to mention here in his first career start, Reds prospect, Jose Barrero, not Jose Garcia.

Goes two for three with a double and a hit by pitch. He's 10% rostered. Scott, I don't think we need to add him yet, but, man, I am intrigued. I might add him in like some 15 team leagues just to see where it goes, but... And you're the one with Faith and Kyle Farmer. I don't know what you're doing. You're hedging your bet there, I guess. Yeah, I guess so.

But, man, a name to watch. Herrero has a lot of ups. He's the red shortstop of the very near future. And the very near future could begin this year. So I think that's reasonable to pick him up in some deeper leagues. Two hard hit balls today. That's what you want to see from him. He's a big raw power guy.

Yeah. Again, he hit a home run in the futures game earlier this season. Hey, real quick, C.J. Cron has had two more hits on Wednesday, three more RBI. In 15 August games, he's betting 415, 7 homers, 25 RBI, and 15. games. That is just unreal. He also has an 11.08 OPS at home and a 674 OPS on the road, 71% rostered, six games on the road next week. I just, I don't think you could start him on the road. No, I mean, that's, it's as straightforward as as it gets with C.J. Crone,

start him at home, sit him on the road. The last two home series, he's just been bananas. And then there was like a dead road series or two in between. Is he going to end up with like this season we thought he was and just throughout nobody's actually going to have like had any faith in him. 100%. Before the season we were like, oh man, CJ Crone could have like a 30 homer,

90 RBI season where he hits 270 and like he's not far off that pace. 100%. I was actually thinking of myself I hope the Rockies bring CJ Crone back because he just, he fits so well there. Will Myers had a double dong. He's now up to 15 home runs. His last 15 games

he's heating up a little bit. 289 betting average, three homers, one steals, 77% rostered. The problem is he plays five games next week. Any interest in Wilmire's? Not yet. He hasn't been as bad lately as you feel like he's been, as you pointed out, but you could go back further than the last 15 games. Still, he hasn't been quite good enough to motivate me to start him again.

Hey, real quick, it never fails. We told everyone to drop Michael Conforto, Matt Chapman, and of course, both of those guys are coming around. Michael Conforto Conforto, two more hits. He's now batting 304 with two home runs, a 904 OPS in the month of August. 73% rostered, six

home games next week. Chris, should we jump back on the Michael Conforto bandwagon? Start Lordus Gariel next week. Yeah. Because we all, we told everyone dropped. Oh, right, yeah. That makes sense. Come on, guys. We'll flow. Context clues. Yeah, yeah.

You should, yeah. When Michael Conforter is going right. I get dropping him when he's been in this season long cold streak, but we know how talented he is. We know how good he can be. Will we want to start any of these pitchers next week? Marco Gonzalez at Texas

on Wednesday never fails. Five and a third shout out, six hits, only three strikeouts over his last six starts. He has a 1.45 ERA. Three of those starts have come against the Texas Rangers. He looks like he's in line for two starts next week versus the Royals at the Oakland

A is, Scott, would you start him there? It's not Texas. Well, no, but the Royals are kind of a pushover of their lineup is as well. True. And it's two starts. Much easier to justify in a points league than a roto league. But,

you know, last six starts, the three that weren't against Texas were also very good for Marco Gonzalez. So he may be coming around. I mean, he's somebody pretty much all believed in coming into the year. I wish there was, I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to do, like, stat cast high level splits

over the like course of the last six games or whatever it is because he had some of the worst expected stats I've ever seen for a starting like literally he had like an XERA in the middle of July that was like almost at seven

and so far yeah those numbers have really turned around he's got a 191 X Wobah in the month of August that was both four tonight. And it was lower than his first two months

in July at least. So I might start him in a points league next week. Sure. Just give me a yes or no on these next two. Terrick Scoobble turned in

a quality start against the Angels on Wednesday. He's allowed two earned runs over his last three starts. Would you look to start him at the Cardinals next week? Yeah. I mean, I don't think

it's a must start situation, but it's, he's, If you're looking for, if you're looking to fill an extra pitcher spot, yes. Yeah, he's pretty fringy, but okay. Scott, our guy, Ranger Suarez, let us down, man. At the Diamondbacks, four and two-thirds,

eight hits, three runs, four walks. It was a dreadful start. However, he's got two starts next week versus Tampa Bay versus Arizona again. 36% rostered. Seems kind of fringy. Yeah, polar opposite opponents there. You know, six of the hits he gave up were singles.

that happened. When you're an extreme groundball pitcher, you're going to give up singles sometimes. The four walks, we could, you know, that's not something he can continue if he wants to be good. I hoped for more against the diamond backs, obviously, but I'm not ready to give up on Ranger Suarez. I mean, he still has a 147 ERA on the year. So for a two-star week, particularly if you're talking to points league

and a spart and a relief pitcher spot, I think that's still worth pursuing. All right, some Wednesday leftovers, some quick stand. And now it's Jose Ramirez went two for six with his 27th home run. He's heating back up. Charlie Blackman is enjoying Corris Field this week. He's got four hits. Two homers in three games.

Marcus Semyon had a double dong. He's now up to 29 homers with 13 steals. Somebody should pay Marcus Semyon this offseason. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes. Teoska Hernandez went two for four with a double and his 22nd home run. In the second half, he's betting 365, 11 homers, and an 11-15 OPEO. Yes, Juan Soto and Josh Bell each hit their 20th home run of the season.

Soto in the second half batting 367, nine homers, a 1273 OPS at the home run derby. He said, you know, I think the home run derby is going to help me take off in the second half. Well, certainly has. I just want to point out, since the start of June, he's hitting 324, 471, 596. So that's a 1067 OPS, which is really good. A 141 walk to 121 strikeout pace, a near 40 homer pace, even 12 stolen base pace. Juan Soto might just be the number one pick next year. You know, I was about to say, no way, but with Ronald de Cunia and Fernando Tateza's status up in the air,

that could make a lot of sense. Luis Robert, he's hot. 10 hits, two homers, one steal over his last six games. Jack Flaherty up against the Brewers, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts. The velocity down a little bit,

around one mile per hour on the fastball, almost two miles per hour on the slider. So let's pay attention to that, but fantastic matchups for Flaherty next week up against the Tigers and the Pirates. Last name I wanted to mention,

A.J. Pollock, three for five with his 15th home run. He's 74% rostered. He might be out there. Some 10 team leagues, some points leagues. I don't know why the buy-in's been so slow with him. I know there have been questions about him losing playing time after they acquired Trey Turner,

but obviously that's not going on right now with Mookie Betts out. He can't stay healthy. Well, is that a sarcastic argument? Yeah. From you? Yeah, because you never make that argument about anybody. Yeah. No, that's why the buy-in's been so slow.

Yeah. It sounds like it makes sense. I mean, he was leading off for the Dodgers on Wednesday. I mean, if you need any other reason to pick someone up, I mean, that should be it. The call to the polpen, some bullpen updates for the twins. Alex Colomey is back. He gave up two earned runs and took his fifth blown save of the season. For the Rockies, Daniel Bard got his 20th save that comes with a 4.44 ERA.

For the Giants, Jake McGee gave up a run in the ninth, took his fourth blown save. He's now allowed five earned runs over his last five. appearances getting a little shaky out there. So let's see, with the Giants. For Washington, Kyle Finnegan picked up his fourth save. For the Angels, Rysel Eglacius, his 27th save. He is the third ranked reliever in Roto this season. And when I saw 27, I thought,

one of my bolt predictions coming into the year was that Rysseliglesias would finish as the number one closer and fantasy and lead MLB in saves. Leading MLB and saves probably not going to happen, but he's not that far off. He's seven behind Mark Melanson. So there you go. Pump myself back up after taking a bunch of L's.

For the Mariners, Paul Seawald, Scott, what do we, why do we even talk about it yesterday, right? I'm Paul Seawald using the eighth inning. Drew Steckinrider picks up his fifth save. And we basically yesterday, we said the opposite. Well, this is Steck and Ryder worked not even the eighth yesterday, worked the seventh. And, you know, heading into yesterday, I thought maybe Steck and Ryder is the front runner for saves and C. I think Diego Castillo definitely isn't. That doesn't mean Castillo won't get another save this year,

but they keep using them in the eighth. Pretty much all month they have. So I'd still rather have Seawald because other numbers are better, and it at least seems to be a split roll between the two. For the Royal Scott Barlow got his seventh save. For the White Sox, Liam Hendricks, nice bounceback, five hitless outs with three strikeouts. for his 28th save.

And then for the Cardinals, Alex Reyes, just had a nightmare outing. He gave up a solo homer in the ninth to tie the game. And then he gave up three unearned runs in the 10th. He wound up taking the loss. A lot of those unearned runs came because of him. He had an error in the 10th inning. He had a wild pitch that allowed a run to score.

So it was just an awful outing. Thursday streamers. To stream or not stream, let's start with Jose Cantana at the Tigers. Chris Flexon at the Rangers, John Lester versus the Brewers. Zach Thompson at the Reds, Mike Minor versus the Astros.

Flexen and nobody else? Yeah, flexen's probably the only one. That's fine by me. Let's look at Friday. Brad Keller at the Cubs. Zach Davies versus the Royals. Nessor Cortez versus the twins. Eliezer Hernandez at the Reds.

Brett Anderson versus the Nationals. And Miles Michaelis making his return versus the Pirates. I don't love any of these, but I could live. live with Eliezer Hernandez at Cincinnati, Nestor Cortez versus the twins, and Brad Keller at the Cubs.

Brad Keller's been sort of good lately. He's got like a 360 ERA since the start of July. Yep. And I would have said that the Cubs have been pretty bad lately, but they hit Tyler Malley pretty hard on Wednesday. I don't know where that came from, but yeah, it did happen. Team name Thursday. Let's wrap up with some of these from Dansby on Twitter.

Dan's B. Samsonite. All right. Yeah. Good, good 26-year-old movie reference there. Yeah. I did look that up beforehand. I've seen dumb and dumber. Don't worry, but it's been a while.

And then his next one is, don'tcha E. Noah. Okay. I mean, kind of also, could also be like a 26-year-old movie reference. It's not that old. Oh, yeah, it is. What would that be for? Oh, that just made me feel really old Fargo. Oh, yeah.

That's like 95. Uh-huh. Oh, man. I think Fargo's 96. I still think, like, I was like, no, that was only 15 years ago. Nope, nope, that was. Yeah. It just made me feel really old.

You start losing decades. I hear you. Yeah. This next one's from Daniel. Stop looking at me, Swanson. What is that? Parks and Rec, right? That's like Tom.

So I just searched it on Google. It could be Parks and Rec. It seems like it also could be Billy Madison. He yells at a swan. Stop looking at me, Swan. Ah, okay. That makes sense. Yeah. A lot of Danesby Swanson love. I'm here for it.

From Tyler. I've got seven players on the IL currently, including my first and second rounders, Muki Betz, and Adelberto Monasi. So my team name is now I-L-Berto Mon D-T-D-S-E. I like it. That's very good.

That's great. Such a Heath team name. This next one's from CJ. India of the Galaxy. I don't get it. I don't either. Look, you guys are my go-toos for team names. If you don't get it, I don't get it.

From Mark and Casey, all this talk of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I still haven't watched it, made me think of some John Hughes film team names. Q. Frank admitting he's seen none of these movies, and Chris saying, mm-hmm, to all of these team names. The Breakfast Cluber. Mm-hmm. Walker Bueller's Day Off. Mm-hmm.

Home Malone. That's very good. That's the best one. Although the next one might be better. 16 candelarios. That's very good. From Brad. I don't, I think I'm going to do this right.

I'm not entirely sure. Oblique day, oblique da. Obliq day, oblique da. What is that from? Is that like a song or something? Not quite, but yeah, the spirit of it. Okay. It's obla de obla da.

Oh, all right. So I was, yeah, I was kind of in rhythm. Not really, though. From Bill, gallon of gasoline on the fire. say that again. Sure. Yeah. And we have a bunch

from Joe. We'll wrap up with these. Do you like jazz? Oh, like Chisholm, okay. Yeah, I don't have my jazz sound bite here. Well, too bad. Annie, are you okay?

Yep. Oh, this is a U. Darvish team name? Sure is. Okay. Chris, you prefer the original or Alien Antform? I prefer the Alien Antpharm one. Yeah, I think so, too.

That song is just awesome. It's so great. Next one, boom goes the dynamite. Actually, my team name in the For the People podcast league. There you go. Yeah, this is an often used one like Trevor, ending story. Yeah, sure has.

Show hey girl, hey. Sure. Hater's going to hate. Patic at the disco. I think we've seen that one before too, yeah. Well, the classic is Panic at Chance Cisco. Joe Panic.

Joe Panic. That is. That's an all-timer. That's great. Sexy canna? I don't understand. That's a song. Sexy can I?

I forgot who's going to say it. Nolan, how do I do this? Nolan Aranod on your team anymore. Yeah. And the last one here is Wadamas, what a mess you made.

What a mess you made. So while I was thinking, the better version of the Nolan Aeronado one would be Nolanara not gonna work here anymore. That's pretty good. And to add to the John Hughes one, I will contribute planes, trains, and automobiles. Okay. Yeah.

All right. You got the approval from Scott. That doesn't happen often here on team name Tuesday. If you want to help us name our softball team, Chris and I are going to play on a team together in the fall. Scott, if you want to move up to New York for like a couple of months and you want to play with us, sure, you're welcome to do so, obviously. If you want to bring your wife...

Fly up every Sunday, Saturday morning. Yeah. Why not? If your wife knows how to play softball, we could use some ladies that know how to play. So again, you have a team name for our softball team. Let us know. Email it in. For Scott, Chris, I am Frank.

Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.